


Lawless Hearts

by kracken



Series: Lawless Hearts [1]
Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-08
Updated: 2014-06-08
Packaged: 2018-02-03 21:27:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 87,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1757469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kracken/pseuds/kracken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Duo was hardly making ends meet selling scrap, but when someone made him a deal he couldn't resist, he found it more than too good to be true, he found it against the law. When his one time war comrade, Heero Yuy, arrests him, he makes an offer Duo can't refuse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Breaking the Law

Lawless Hearts  
Part 1: Breaking The Law  
by Kracken

 

Disclaimer:I don't own them and I don't make any money off of this  
Warning:Male/male sex, graphic, language, violence.

1x2

Lawless Hearts

 

Breaking the Rules

I didn't have help on Tuesdays. The three guys working with me were doing it for peanuts and a place to stay in a shack in the back of my scrap yard. They were on a 'call only when you need us' basis and whenever I didn't need them they were usually drunk and sleeping it off. For some reason, Tuesday seemed a particularly bad day for them. When you work on the thin line of going out of business, a trio of street people was about all you could get, so complaining wasn't an option. I was scraping by and missing meals, here and there, when money ran out, so I guess I was just a step up from them, only I hadn't started drinking yet.

I suppose location is everything. Buying a cheap scrap yard in a section of space station that was filled with them, was, in of itself, a bad move, but it was what I could afford on the 'soldier charity fund' set up by Relena Peacecraft after the war. I had fought, killed, and given up my youth, and, in return, I'd been given just enough for the down payment on a dirt lot full of rusting metal parts. Sucks, I know, but what's new? Like always, I took what I could get and scrabbled for the rest. It's not like I'd ever had it better.

As for the guys from the war, those other pilots that I had been, well, not fast friends with, but at least comrades in arms? We didn't walk in the same circles and it was just too hard to hook up or keep in touch. Hilde stuck around for a bit, but she found true love at a bus stop down town one day and decided that living with a gay man in a pile of garbage wasn't the kind of life to lead. She's happy, and I don't blame her, but it gets lonely now. Stray cats, and the occasional rat, weren't good company and my trio of drunk employees didn't see much point in being buddies with a guy who didn't share their passion for the bottle.

Sometimes, I felt like drinking. When I sat in the office shack, and the heat was up because the damned people in charge of the weather controls thought it'd be nice to have a hot summer day, when loneliness crashed down on me and I didn't see anything in my future but that dusty lot, that rusting junk, and ... no one in my life, I wanted to blur it and make that ache of 'loser' go away. Well, right up until I watched one of my 'employees' stagger from their shack and vomit, looking like a three week old corpse someone had just dug up. Yeah, it could get worse. It could get that much worse.

When a truck pulled into the yard, on a day that I felt my lowest, on a day where food had not been affordable, on a day where I'd just about tried my luck begging my employees for a bite to eat, I was more than eager to take whatever he had. To sell junk, you had to have what people wanted. Unfortunately, I was last on a list when it came to selling. They could get better prices at the other yards. That made deliveries like these, a cause for celebrating. I didn't lose any time running out to meet the guy.

He seemed nervous. Black combat boots, olive overalls, a cap that he kept taking off so that he could smooth a hand over the top of his crewcut. I hadn't lived this long by being stupid. Something was up and that something was probably illegal. Since I had led a life where I had never shook hands with the law, my only concern was 'how illegal?' and 'could I get away with it?'. The man eyed me and a look passed between us. He relaxed, not completely, but he knew we understood each other before we ever said a word.

"Paperwork?" I asked point blank. The man shrugged. I bit my lip. "Hot?" He shook his head, no, lifting his cap and running that hand over his hair again. A lie. "Traceable?" He shook his head again and I wasn't sure. "How much?"

"80%," the man replied, looking out over my scrap lot as if it was foreign to him. A newbie, I guessed, and grinned ferally to myself.

"I'm poor, not stupid. 60%, and only if you have some really good shit," I growled. "You won't get that from anyone else."

The man frowned and took long minutes to think about it. It was a war of nerves. Somehow, well, he only had to look around, he knew I was desperate. He wanted me to crack, promise him whatever he wanted. I waited him out, sweat trickling down my back. He finally looked down at me. I was thin and wiry and I still had that dopey, big eyed look that made everyone think they were smarter than me. Kid, my look said, just a kid with a big assed braid.

The man started to leave. I didn't panic. I let him. "Have a nice day," I called after him.

He stopped. I could feel him simmering. I didn't have to see it to know. Finally, he turned around again, scowling. He must be just as desperate as I am, I thought, but kept any smugness off my face as he held out a computer pad. I looked it over, basic sale that noted the contents as 'reworked tools'. Bullshit, I thought, as I put my thumb print to it after adding the amount I would give him on the resale. If he was handing me junk, he wouldn't get a dime. It was the only way, in my dire straits, that I could operate.

The man waved me towards the truck and tucked the pad under his arm. He was looking sour, not pleased by the sale, but making the best of it. Yep, damned hot stuff if he wasn't willing to shop around.... or maybe he had and he'd been turned down already? That made me cautious. I didn't think the man would be stupid enough to give me contraband, or something I clearly didn't have the contacts to resell, but you'd be surprised at how stupid some people can be when they think the law can come down on them at any moment. Since they'd been breathing down my neck since my earliest memories, I didn't share the same fear.

I opened the back of the truck and clambered up into it. I was wearing a gray tank top and a loose pair of jeans. I knew I'd have to lose them as soon as I got down from the truck again. Everything was caked with dirt, as if the cargo had been buried for some time, and oil and fuel was soaked into the bed of the truck. Opening a crate, I was confronted by gleaming metal that looked brand new. I recognized the gyros for what they were instantly and the hair stood on the back of my neck. Military grade gyros for suits. Shit!

My hands trembled as I replaced the lid of the crate. I almost couldn't walk as I turned to look down at the man standing outside of the truck. "Where in holy hell did you get these?"

The man looked smug. "What's it matter? I need them sold."

I wiped my dirty hands on my pants and licked nervous lips. If I managed to sell them, I could put my feet up for ten years, in Tahiti. I said, "All right!" just an exclamation of excitement as my brain worked on the details, feverishly thinking about who I knew who could take the lovelies off my hands.

Like I said, I hadn't lived that long by being stupid. Survival instincts finally kicked my greedy self in the butt and pointed out just who I was and what I was being offered. It didn't add up. I went cold.

"Uh, wait a minute," I stammered, starting to get down out of the truck. "Maybe I should reconsid-"

A gun was suddenly in my face and I found my old, war time buddy, Heero Yuy, standing beside my 'customer'. His gun was as black as his suit and it gleamed in the sun, deadly and unwavering. His blue eyes glared at me and he said, in a voice like an undertaker, "Too late."  
\----------------------------------------------------  
I slumped against the window in the back seat of the sleek, black car. Heero Yuy sat beside me, gun still out and resting on his knee so that the barrel was pointed at my heart. I didn't look at him. I kept my eyes on the window, looking at the scenery, the curve of the space station as we passed from the stacked dirt lots of the scrap dealers, to a warehouse district, and then into the better parts of the sprawling metropolis. Here was greenery and I couldn't help looking longingly at cool shade trees in their planters and strips of green grass set in park squares between office buildings and shops.

I tried to ease my wrists. The manacles clinked. My hands had been cuffed behind my back and my shoulders felt as if the joints would pop. I was covered in sweat, dust, and things from the truck that I had climbed into earlier. I stunk like fuel, grease, and dirt. My clothes were grimy and one of the men, that had come boiling into my lot at a call from Heero, had torn my tank top pulling me out of the truck. It hung raggedly off of one of my shoulders, showing an old scar, jagged and pink against the darker tan of my skin.

I felt like a bum, sitting there in that ultra clean car and seated next to a spit and polish Heero Yuy. He even had a faint smell of after shave. Because of this man, I was now a criminal bum, being taken to Preventer lock up to have my ass interrogated and booked. I suppose that I should have been more upset about that, but all I could do was muster a black depression. Maybe it was the hunger. I couldn't remember my last meal. Maybe, after a sandwich, I would manage some outrage at being framed.

My own mind pointed out that I had been going to sell those illegal parts. I growled at it to shut the hell up. I didn't want the truth just then, or blame. Being in denial was far more appealing, thank you very much. Instead, I used up the time from the scrap yard to the tall, gleaming building of Preventer headquarters, to wonder why they had wanted to net a fish as small as me. I might have done a few under the table deals, but they'd been more along the lines of stolen metal plating and general equipment. Otherwise, I'd stayed in my dirt lot and kept my nose clean, a pretty big accomplishment when you consider my skills and my past. I could have done some real damage if I had chosen too, and made myself rich enough for a king by hacking into systems and bank accounts. Maybe that's what this was all about? Maybe they couldn't believe that Duo Maxwell, ex Gundam pilot, could refrain from dipping into trouble that big.... but then, how did they explain my hand to mouth existence? It didn't add up....

It was tempting to ask what was going on, to try and breach that stone wall that was the man sitting next to me, but a gun waiting for the twitch of a finger to fire, doesn't make you want to disturb the man who owns the finger. Why, would have to wait.

When the car pulled into a special area, and I was dragged almost by my hair out of the car by an agent half again my size, I heard another agent tell Heero, "We used a search warrant. He didn't have much. I had the stuff sent to your partner. He's waiting for you."

"Hn," just a low grunt from Heero of acknowledgement as he came around and checked my manacles. When he pulled on them, I hissed in pain, but didn't do anything else except bow my head with a scowl. What was there to say? He knew they hurt. He knew how tight my arms were locked backwards. He wanted me that incapacitated though. A trained Gundam Pilot was damned dangerous, so I didn't really blame him. Didn't stop me from being pissed though.

Heero finally tucked his gun back into its holster under his arm and let his coat fall down over it to hide it. He was among friends now, everyone armed, everyone ready to take out Duo Maxwell if he so much as blinked the wrong way.

"What's a matter, Yuy?" a man joked as he passed us by. "Only way you could get a date?"

Heero didn't smile or reply, but the man seemed used to that. I was red in the face angry. Yeah, I did have a really long braid, but I didn't look like a girl. I had a guy's face. Asshole, I thought, to make myself feel better as we threaded our way through a maze of lock down doors and entered the secure side of the building. Heero took me into a featureless room with a table and a few chairs. Yeah, just like in the old movies, 'Just the facts, ma'am.' and all that.

Chang Wu Fei, his partner, was waiting for him along with a large box, tipped over on the table, with my belongings spilling out of it. My anger turned to embarrassment in an instant. As Heero kicked a chair away from the table and made me sit in it with a hand pressing down on my shoulder, Wu Fei grimaced and nodded to my things as he said, "Nothing of interest."

Wu Fei was dressed in grays and blacks. A normal suit, but he managed to make it look very oriental. He still wore his hair pulled back tight into a pony tail. I wondered if it made his brain hurt. Those dark eyes, with those long dark brows, were as disdainful as ever, and he had that exact expression I remembered from the war, the glare down the nose that managed to convey an impression that he considered everyone in range of it, a bug.

I had a phenomenal memory, by the way, one of the things that had made Dr. G take a chance on me; that and my breaking and entering skills. I kept a lot of things in my head, my less than upstanding contacts as well. It was much safer that way. They weren't going to find anything to get me on unless my contacts hadn't been as circumspect. If one of them had ratted on me, or put down something incriminating... but that still didn't add up. The truth of the matter was, that petty theft and laundering minor items wasn't that big of a deal. It certainly didn't warrant all of those agents, a sting operation, and the intense way Heero and the arresting agents had acted. It lead me back to the fear that I was being suspected of something a hell of a lot bigger.

Wu Fei pushed a few porn magazines to one side distastefully. Guys cheescaked on the covers. I felt my face catch fire, but I just sat and glared. Guess that cat was out of the bag now, though I'd never actively kept it from anyone. Why an agent had felt it necessary to include them in an evidence box was beyond me.

Wu Fei flipped idly through a few notebooks, filled with the kind of thing you do when you're doodling while talking on the phone. He had my desk calendar too, filled with the same kind of cryptic scrawls, phone numbers, and random expletives that I couldn't say to whoever had been on the other end of the line at the time. He also had some photographs and a few news clippings that I had laminated. War time stuff, me and Hilde, a couple of photos of me and the guys getting our 'you did a good job now get lost' awards, and one photo of Heero half turned from the camera. I had snuck that one and I'm not sure if I blushed hotter about that than about the porn magazines. They, at least, could be explained.... the other. Okay, so the guy is hotter than a shuttle on re-entry and I couldn't leave that damned 'after the war' party without getting a shot to ...uhm... look at once in awhile.

Heero finally spoke while I looked down at the table, tracing the scratches and dents with my eyes. "You are being charged with intent to buy and sell contraband suit gyros. That carries a minimum ten year sentence."

"Get less for murdering someone," I grunted under my breath sourly.

Wu Fei's cool voice replied, "Is that supposed to help your defense?"

"Guess I should be asking for a lawyer now, right?" I snapped back.

"You haven't been officially charged yet," Heero told me and I looked up in surprise. "If you cooperate-"

I snorted and sunk down in my chair, trying to ease my shoulders. "I don't know anything."

Wu Fei was playing bad cop, I guess. He frowned darkly and said, "There is a ten year jail sentence and a bunk in a jail cell with your name on it, Maxwell. If you don't want a lot of hard up men appreciating your long hair, you had best tell us what we wish to know."

I laughed. "You need to practice that more," I told him. "Try, 'Unless you want to bend over for a guy named 'Bubba'."

Heero was more direct. Yeah, good cop, though he didn't seem much different from bad cop. "Cooperate or we will book you right now."

I had an itch on the end of my nose. I struggled to scratch it on my shoulder as I said, "Why don't you ask me something and I'll try and answer it? Like I said, though, I don't know anything... well, unless you're interested in two bit fences and borderline scrap dealers?"

Heero exchanged a look with Wu Fei. Wu Fei blinked and that seemed to communicate something to Heero. Heero asked point blank. "Do you know a man named Ryffio?"

"No, should I?" I was genuinely mystified. I frowned, puzzled, "Look, I don't do contraband gyros. Yeah, I had a moment of weakness, but, honestly, I don't deal with that shit or anyone who does. I would have had to contact contacts of contacts to find someone to take them off my hands..... ahhhhh..." I exclaimed suddenly. I got it, finally. "You're looking for a stoolie, undercover, snitch in the business."

Wu Fei looked annoyed as he put the box level with the table and swept my stuff into it with a rake of his arm.

"Bingo," I said, amused, but then shook my head, "No can do. Duo Maxwell is a lot of things, but he's not a-"

Heero suddenly twisted a hand into what was left of my tank top. His eyes were like molten blue lava as he said, with that deadly tone of voice that always sent a chill up my spine every time I had heard it, "All I have to do is make one call and you will be spending life in prison, not just ten years. Do I make myself clear? We need your contacts and your expertise. You will cooperate. No, is not an option."

"I may be wrong," I told him calmly, "But I think you just broke about half a dozen laws. I want a lawyer... now."

Was I scared? Hell yeah! They had me dead to rights and, lawyer or no lawyer, I was looking at serious time in the slammer. There's something you learn, though, when you've lived like I have; to play poker well and to never let them see you sweat. I had to deal, I knew it, but I needed some serious 'hand' right then and there.

Heero gave me a very long and very steady look, and then he straightened. That silent, whatever it was, passed between Wu Fei and him again and it was Wu Fei who grunted, crossed his arms over his chest, and said, "There would be some... compensation for your cooperation." I could tell that the very idea of paying me off was sticking in his throat.

I grinned. "Okay, but I want to know one thing, this isn't a 'rake up the little fish' operation is it? You're going after some big and dangerous dude, right? 'Cuz, I'm not turning in anybody that's just scraping to feed himself and his family, okay?"

"The man we are after is very big and very dangerous," Heero replied.

"Okay..." I took a deep breath, quickly went over everything in my mind, checking and double checking that I was zero on options, before I said, "Done deal."

Wu Fei inclined his head. Heero just grunted.

I rattled my manacles. "Can you take these off now, before you have to amputate my arms?"

Heero moved to comply. When my arms were free, I bent over them, trying to work back some circulation into them. While I did this, Heero went to the box on the table and began to lift it, I guess to give it back to me. He paused and fished out the photo of himself. He studied it and frowned.

"I was trying to get photos of all you guys," I said nervously. Okay, that was THE most lame assed excuse... there wasn't pictures in there of anyone else by themselves and it was way too obvious that I had cut someone else out of the picture to have him by himself. I sure as hell hadn't wanted him standing by Relena Peacecraft! Anyway, Heero didn't buy it, I could tell, but, I wasn't sure just what he WAS thinking. His expression was muted... stone wall like... damned hard to read, is what I'm saying.

Heero finally put the photo back and brought the box to me. I stood up, intending to take it, but then the fact that I hadn't eaten in, however long it had been, caught up with me. I passed out cold.

TBC

Please check out my male romance books on Kindle and Nook by searching my pen name: Kracken


	2. Hand

Lawless Hearts  
Part 2: Hand  
by Kracken

 

Disclaimer:Don't own them, don't make any money off of them.  
Warning:Male/male sex, graphic, language, violence.  
1x2

 

I woke with a pounding headache and a crawling sense of disorientation. Keeping still, my training still very much a part of me, I listened to my surroundings before opening my eyes. There was breathing very near, male breathing; heavy. Paper rustled, the pages of something being turned. A chair scuffled to my right and someone sighed irritably. I played that sigh over in my head twice before my brain kicked into gear and recognized it as Chang Wu Fei's. That recognition supplied me with place and circumstances. Preventer lock-up, interrogation room, Heero, Wu Fei, set up, deal done... oh, yeah, and passing out.

I opened my eyes then, blinked against a bright, overhead light, and then turned my head to see who was closest to me. A man in a white doctor's coat sat with one butt cheek on the table I was stretched out on. The man was crew cut and young, his whole attention on one of my magazines. Swiveling my head a bit, I could see Heero leaning back in his chair staring at nothing, looking tousled, handsome, and very bored. Wu Fei was seated next to him in an attitude of someone who was about to explode with frustration. He always did have a nuclear temper.

"Guess I took a little nap," I said hoarsely.

Everyone looked at me. I tried to sit up, but the doctor reached out and put a hand on my chest. "Not so damned fast, boy," he warned and checked my pulse against his watch, the magazine forgotten in his lap. He wasn't that much older than me and I bristled and struggled up anyway, shoving his hand off.

"You should do as he says," Heero said as he stood up. His hands fussed with his coat, as if he wanted to reach for his gun, maybe that uncertain of me. I didn't let the grin show. Yeah, be scared asshole, I thought.

"I'm okay," I grumbled as I pulled the ragged remnants of my tank top into some sort of order. I pushed back my bangs from my face and glared at the doctor. "That is MY stuff!"

"Sorry," the man said as he finished taking his reading. He stood up and tossed the magazine back into the box. "That was one of my favorite issues." It put me off balance, made me embarrassed. I wasn't sure whether he was making fun of me or not.

"Is he allright?" Heero asked him.

The doctor frowned. He took out his stethoscope and listened to my heart despite my stiffening at the invasion of my personal space. "Hmmm," he said after listening for a moment. "Sounds good, but Mr. Maxwell is displaying several symptoms that make treatment imperative."

"Imp-," I didn't know what that word meant, but I did understand that something was wrong. "What kind of treatment?"

The man fished in a side pocket of his coat, pulled out several candies and a wrapped sandwich, and tossed them into my startled hands. "Eating regularly and repeatedly, Mr. Maxwell. That's my prescription." He nodded to the food. "You can start with those. Follow up with some vitamin supplements and a few protein drinks."

I blinked and didn't know what to say as the doctor stood up, nodded to Heero and Wu Fei, and said as he left, "Any more dizziness, see the clinic."

There was a long silence. I unwrapped the sandwich and started eating, not looking at Heero or Wu Fei. I was starved. I heard one of them leave and then come back. A protein drink was placed on the table by my leg. The hand holding it had been Heero's.

"Why haven't you been eating?" Heero wanted to know. I shrugged and said nothing. My financial difficulties were none of his business.

I swallowed a bite of sandwich and said, "Okay, before I took a header on the floor, we were talking about how you framed me and how you wanted to force me to be your stoolie... I think compensation was talked about too. You'll get a lot more out of me handing out credits instead of threats."

Wu Fei made a noise of disgust.

I eyed him as I uncapped the protein drink and took a long swallow. Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, I said, "What's wrong with wondering if getting paid is part of my employment package?"

Heero frowned as he took a wadded up coat from the table behind me. It was Wu Fei's. It had been my pillow. He tossed it to Wu Fei and Wu Fei caught it and shook it to get out the wrinkles.

"I told you that you are looking at a very long prison sentence," Heero said. "We are giving you the chance to avoid that. I don't understand why we are talking about money now."

"Because I know your game now and I know you need me bad," I told him with a smirk.

Heero was genuinely puzzled by my logic. "Why do you believe that?"

I held up a finger. "One, you set up a nice big sting operation just to catch a two bit junk dealer. Two, you aren't hauling my ass to jail. Three, I bet I can bring charges against you right and left now. You aren't a sloppy guy, so you know it and you don't care. Charges against me are the last thing on your mind... in fact... it never entered your head, am I right?"

Wu Fei threw a look at Heero and snorted. "You have been unprofessional from the start and now we don't have anything to make sure of his loyalty. If you had waited instead of blowing cover so soon back at the scrap yard, we could have filed firm charges against him. He would have accepted the shipment on record and we could have tapped his communications to follow his search for a buyer."

"Wrong," I told him. "I wasn't going to take the shipment. I was about to refuse when Heero stuck his gun up my nose." I shrugged. "Not that it matters. Cops make up the story and people go to jail anyway." I pointed to a vid camera high on one wall. "What went on here is on tape though, so I have some ammunition for getting out of this mess now. You threatened me, kept me here instead of sending me to an infirmary, and tried to cut a deal with me. I think I have enough to walk out of here with."

"Leave us alone," Heero suddenly requested.

"Yuy," Wu Fei warned.

"I know, another rule broken," Heero snorted as if amused.

Wu Fei looked exasperated. "He has no honor," he pointed out. "How can we trust him?"

Heero's face tightened. "I want to talk to him."

Wu Fei nodded stiffly, clearly angry, and left the room.

I blinked at Heero. "Okay.... What's up?"

Heero brushed a stray lock of chocolate brown hair from his eyes and slowly paced the room as he said, "Wu Fei is right. I could have waited. We could have brought firm charges against you. I didn't want that , though, so I broke cover."

"Why?"

Heero pulled at his coat. I wondered if his gun was like a security blanket. I remembered, during the war, how he had never been without it. "I didn't want you to be arrested," he told me. "I didn't want Duo Maxwell's record to include, attempted resale of contraband weapons. The penalties for that crime are very serious. Even if you had helped us, I could never have convinced a jury to be lenient with you. You would still have served time and you would have been under watch for the rest of your life. I had hoped to threaten you, to make you believe that you were going to serve time... "

"You have the power," I said. "You can say and do anything you want, but, right now, what we have here, is a pissing contest, Heero. I want out of here in one piece and you need me for something. Let's work this out and both get what we want. You don't have to talk about how none of it was legal. No shit and all of that."

"It was legal," Heero argued, "Until I lost my nerve."

"So, being buddies during the war did amount to something after all? It made you feel guilty for trying to screw me over." It would have been nice to believe that, but it would have been nice to believe in tooth fairies too. I was just being sarcastic.

Imagine my surprise when Heero admitted, "As important as this case is... I couldn't ruin you."

Where was the bad cop? Where was the stone cold killer? This Heero Yuy, who was acting as if he cared what happened to my life, was weirding me out. I wanted back to safe ground. I wanted back where I was familiar with the lay of the land. I said, "Okay, so let's cut out the strong arm bullshit and get down to bare metal. What the hell do you really want from me and why don't you think I'll go along with it without a big stick over my head?"

"Wu Fei thinks you'll cut and run, or alert your contacts, at the first opportunity," Heero told him, "It was his plan to initiate the sting operation."

"Of course," I said and rolled my eyes. I rubbed at my aching head. "You know, I said it during the war, and it's still true. You guys suck! I spent a war sacrificing for the colonies." I jabbed at the thick scar on my shoulder. "I'm covered with these, mementoes from taking hits, from giving my all, from thinking my life was worth giving to make a bunch of ungrateful assholes free. Why do you think I wouldn't do it again? "

"Because we thought that you might be one of them," Heero told him. "Your hacking skills were phenomenal. Your contacts were far and wide. Your past and reputation made it hard, still makes it hard, for us to believe that you actually are running a poor scrap yard. We have been searching for hidden bank accounts, hidden money transfers... We've been watching your every move."

I flushed, angry and embarrassed. "Yeah? What did I do that made you think I was actually rich and running contraband?"

"Nothing," Heero admitted.

I arched eyebrows. "Nothing?"

"Wu Fei thought that you were aware of us, that you were purposefully staying undercover."

"As a poor assed scrap dealer?" I wasn't sure how to handle that. I ended up laughing. Heero stopped his pacing and looked at me. Suddenly, he laughed as well. Even though it was more serious and short, it still sounded good. When I stopped laughing, I said, "Thanks for not stringing me up, Heero. I'm mad about getting roughed up, but, I can see you have some serious bad guy stuff going down." I shoved my dirty braid behind me and looked down at my filthy self. "Tell you what, let me go the hell home and clean up. Let's try this again in the morning with me on the right side of the law." I gave him a hard look. "I've been running the edge a few times, buddy, but I have been missing meals and just getting by trying to stay honest." I really glared now, "And Duo Maxwell doesn't cut and run, Goddamit, and you can tell Wu Fei to stick it for thinking it!"

Heero nodded and then asked, "Are you sure that you are allright?"

Heero's face did something, made a little worried frown that had me staring, knowing it was for me. What the hell? "I just need a few square meals, just like the doc said," I told him while my mind tried to sort that look out, tried to square it with the guy I'd known during the war. It was too hard. I was tired, hungry still, and turned inside out mentally. I had gone from being arrested by two goons who didn't give a shit about me, to being confronted by a Heero who cared. I wasn't in any shape to make those kinds of mental switches in gears.

I slid off the table and onto my feet. I felt shaky. I must have looked pale. Heero said, putting a strong hand under my arm. "Let me take you to the commissary. I can..." There wasn't any good way to offer charity, but as hungry as I was, I was willing to stomp on my pride and accept when he finished, "I can buy you lunch."

I pulled at my clothes. "I don't really want to go anywhere around here looking like this. If you can float me a few bills, I'll snatch something on the way home. I'll pay you back."

Heero dug in his wallet and then handed me four twenties. I blanched and handed three back. My pride wasn't that much down for the count. "I don't eat that much," I told him and pocketed the twenty. He stared at me, the extra bills still in his hand.

"What?" I wondered.

Heero put the bills back in his wallet and said as if he were ashamed, "I shouldn't have listened to Wu Fei. I want to... I want to apologize."

"For setting me up and making my fellow scrap dealers wonder what kind of guy they have in the business next to them? For roughing me up, booking me with false charges, and dragging my ass downtown? For spilling out my personal stuff where anyone can paw through it?" I picked up my box. "You're apologizing?"

Heero looked almost ashamed. It was really freaking me out now. "Yes, I apologize."

I could have run down the hall and had his ass strung up right then and there and he knew it. Wu Fei didn't trust me, but, for some reason, Heero Yuy did. "Accepted," I told him firmly and grinned as he looked up, startled. "I don't hold grudges," I told him, but then frowned, "Well, not most of the time."

We went to the door and Heero opened it. Wu Fei came in instantly. "What's going on?" he demanded when he saw me there with my box in my hands.

"I'm going bye, bye until tomorrow," I told him, "and then I'm coming back and you are going to cut the bullshit and level with me."

"Yuy!" Wu Fei barked, "He'll run for it. You can't trust-"

"You'll have to," I told him with a grin. "You screwed this up big time and I get to go home, or else. So, outta the way, Chang. Maxwell is coming through."

"Sally Po is not going to like this," Wu Fei snarled at Heero and I felt kind of bad for the man. Because of me, he was going to catch hell. "We spent months setting this up and you brought it all crashing down on our heads because you let your emotions dictate your actions."

I snorted. "In or out of the law, Chang, you're no match for me. Don't be too hard on old Heero there." I waved cheerily. "Bye, bye!"

I left them arguing hotly and sighed, feeling exhausted. What had just happened had been worse than a circus and it had all happened because Heero Yuy felt something for me. What that was, I wasn't sure, but I wanted to know. As for whatever they thought that they needed from me... you know, I was pretty damned confused about that too, but I was kind of excited and curious about it too. I had spent a couple of years in a kind of dust bowl of small triumphs and loneliness. That world had been sliding into something else, though, something I hadn't really wanted to face. The word 'failure' didn't want to come to mind, but I had been failing at something that simple. Maybe I wanted something else, something bigger, something to take me away before I did have to face reality and say that word.

"Yuy, you are an idiot!" I heard Wu Fei's voice shout behind me. I thought I heard Heero laugh in response, but I wasn't sure.

 

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	3. Working Man

Lawless Hearts  
Part 3: Working Man  
by Kracken

Kracken

Disclaimer:I don't own them and I don't make any money off of this.  
Warning:Male/male sex, graphic, language, violence.

 

Great! I was stuck on the wrong side of the station with a twenty in my pocket and no freakin' desire to spend it on a taxi home. I went first to an outside fast food joint, carefully ordered as much protein and fat as I could in the form of meaty burgers and greasy, fried vegetables, and downed two milkshakes until my pounding headache eased up and the spinning between my ears ceased altogether. Fat and happy, I rolled myself out of there and ignored the disgusted looks thrown my way. I gave them a loud burp as a way of flipping them off, before I began my search for a hub transit station.

I couldn't blame them for being disgusted, really. I was filthy, I was wearing ripped, dirt covered clothes, and I reeked more than any grease pit mechanic on his worst day. Even I wouldn't have wanted a lunch companion like me. Not blaming them didn't keep me from ... disliking them? Being irritated with them? Hating them? Okay, maybe not hate, but envy most certainly. I envied them and that made me pissy as a matter of course.

I've always struggled to get from one day to the next, even during the war. I've always had to be smart, fast, and willing to do what it took to survive. I crawled along the underbelly of society even now, struggling with the rest of the have nots and the unlucky bastards. Yeah, I guess I was in the 'unlucky bastard' category. Anyway, seeing people who were clean, well fed, and employed in nice, air conditioned buildings, watching me, had a tendency to make me feel like a mangy, stray dog; kind of not worthy to walk the same street as them. It made my hackles stand up... okay, that was stupid. Forget I said that last bit. It made me PISSY, with a big P, and I couldn't help playing the part that their imaginations were painting for me. Yeah, look at the street trash and be glad you aren't like this poor bastard.

The transit was free, but it was far from luxury. I always expected cattle and coal to be piled up next to me when I jumped on the bare bones transit shuttle. Hard metal seats, and bare metal walls scrawled with colorful sayings, made up the inside. I took a seat, put my box down beside me, and couldn't help scrunching in a corner when three young men, looking even less reputable than myself, stepped on as well. They didn't sit, and that made me nervous. They paced as the transit pulled from the station, and they kept scanning everything with narrowed eyes. About to commit a crime or already had, I thought. I looked at my feet and let my dirty bangs fall in my face. The last thing I wanted was for them to wonder if I was trying to ID them.

I'll tell you right now, I could have wiped the floor with everyone of them, even stuffed full of burgers and fried food, even having gone days without eating, even having just passed out at a lock up. Why do it, though, unless you had to? I sure as hell didn't look like someone to rob, so keeping quiet, and minding my own business, was the best coarse of action right then.

The floor was rusted. There was a hole big enough to let me watch the ground passing underneath. I let that absorb my attention for awhile, even wondering if anyone had accidentally stepped into it and what might have happened to the unfortunate person who might have. I felt the men relaxing, one sitting down, another leaning against a wall and snorting something, drugs probably, his back turned to me. The third one... Goddamit! He was slowly making his way towards me. I played dumb and didn't look up.

"You stink like shit!" the man snarled.

"Byproduct of hard work," my cheerful, smart assed mouth said. I kicked  
myself less than one second after it left my mouth. I winced, but still didn't look up.

"I'll get off next stop," I amended, trying to sound meek and apologetic. You know, that never got me shit, and I wonder why anyone, including myself, even tries it. Maybe it's just so we won't feel so guilty when we kick their asses. We tried to be nice, and all of that.

"You'll get the hell off now!" A hand grabbed me by my braid and hauled me towards the door of the transit.

The transit doors were made not to open while the thing was moving, but like all good government projects, they were hardly maintained. Someone had jumped the system and bare wires hung from the overhead. Yes, there were some people who actually wanted to get off of a moving transit shuttle after they murdered or robbed someone. Waiting for the next stop would have been just stupid. There were spots where the shuttle had to slow. They were good jumping off points. What this killer intended though, wasn't anything like that. We were at top speed and the wind of it hit us as he slapped the wires and made the door open. I expected it. I was ready. Killer wasn't any of those things as I sucker punched him, yanked my braid out of his suddenly lax hands, and kicked him out first. There wasn't a scream and I didn't watch what happened to him. I had his buddies to face.

I slapped the wires and the door shut as I turned, all one smooth motion. The guy snorting drugs turned with hazy eyes and the guy lounging in one of the seats blinked. "Said he was a dumbshit," the seated guy growled and went back to contemplating graffiti. The drug guy snorted, nodded with a giggle, and went back to his drugs. Guess they weren't very tight.

I kept a dangerous glare on my face as I went back to my seat. They didn't give me any trouble, but I was glad to get to my stop. I jumped out and stalked away, feeling reaction starting to set in. I tried to calm myself by telling myself some nice lies about how the guy might not actually be dead. Sure, I'd killed lots and lots of people during the war, but your head is in a different place when you're in battle. You can tell yourself that you're doing something right and that you're following orders that will make the lives of people better, safer, freer. Yeah, it's true, but you really need to wrap yourself in that tight when some guy in a suit cries out for his mama as you're cutting it in half. I didn't have that mental, cotton batting right now. Saving my own skin didn't seem to have the same protection.

All that food and the adrenalin rush was making me ready to hurl. I took it slow and sat down in the yellowish dust road that led between the rickety fences of the scrap yards more than once. It wasn't really dirt, more like industrial waste cleaned and processed into fine, round grains and put down for ascetic, cushioning effect. At least that's what the government records probably said right before the big warning not to breathe it for long periods of time. If you are ever on L2, you'll notice in a fly over that only the worst parts of the station got the special, cushioning, ascetically pleasing, recycled waste. The cities have nice, real, honest to goodness, dirt and bonded matting over the metal frame of the station.

Rounding the corner of my yard was as close to coming home for me since I had been at the orphanage. I felt safe, relieved, and ready to kick back in my shack. I wasn't prepared to go in and find everything open, spilled out, and sifted through. I guess either the Preventer agents had gotten overzealous or my 'employees' at the back of the yard had robbed me and cut their losses after they had seen the law drag my ass away. My only consolation was, that there hadn't been any money to rob.

I tossed my box of personal things onto my work desk. The computer was gone, of course, probably sitting on the counter of a pawn shop by now. I felt... depressed... at a loss... only one thing clear to mind. I wanted to sleep. I wanted to crawl into bed and just forget the whole damned day.

I went to lock the door and found the lock broken. Jamming a chair under the knob, it was better than nothing, I went into the back where my bed was set up next to a small fridge, a bathroom as small as a closet, an empty space where my vidscreen had been, and a futon that was turned over with the bottom sliced open. My mattress had received the same treatment, but someone had dumped it back onto the frame, so all I had to do was fall face first onto it and pull the forgetfulness of sleep over me. The world, for now, could go to hell.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------

I woke up with light coming through the skewed curtain of a window, aimed like a laser beam, right at my eyes. I groaned and tried to move. Every inch of my skin felt grungy, my mouth was nasty and as dry as a desert, and joy of joys, my headache was back. I had a vague thought that road kill couldn't have felt worse than me at that moment.

I levered myself up, dutiful muscles responding despite the part of my brain that just wanted to curl up and continue to ignore life. I almost crawled on all fours to the bathroom, my back refusing to straighten, and then used the bathroom wall to hold me up as I peed into a metal toilet ringed with rust. The sound was weirdly satisfying, don't ask me why. That done, I stripped out of what was left of my clothes, and turned on the shower. The shower head was only half functioning, clogged up with whatever silt and grime was in the pipes. The water came out in every direction except down. By hanging on the shower head, and propping myself one handed against the cracked tile of the stall, I turned it this way and that to soak my hair and body thoroughly. The pipes groaned and chugged, but the water heater was working. Slowly, my body steamed and I woke up completely.

What the hell now? I thought about it as I soaped up and shampooed my hair. I took a big mouthful of water, gargled, and spit it out loudly. Much better. Now I didn't feel like someone might start mining dirt on my tongue. Instead, I felt something completely different. I felt mad. So much for not holding grudges. The end of my day yesterday had pretty much cemented my sense of 'they did me wrong'. Help them... fuck them... I had a business to run... into the ground, but I still had to run it. They had destroyed my shack and let me get robbed.

An inner voice, that sounded suspiciously like the nun that had taken care of me when I had lived in a church orphanage, reminded me that I had been going to buy those gyros, reminded me that if it hadn't been for Heero having a twinge of his own conscious, and my own street sense, I would now be fighting off guys wanting to 'get to know me better' in a maximum security prison. I had stepped over that line between small time and big fish. They could still do me wrong, I thought, if they wanted to forget my bit of backtracking.

I rinsed off and left the shower, toweling off and trying to dry my long rope of hair. I bent over to sort through some clothes on the floor for something to wear, and my cross, on it's silver chain, clunked me in the face. I winced. It was like getting my hand hit by a ruler for being bad. Catholic guilt had the ability to follow you to the grave and the people who had taken care of me, had instilled it in me even during my short stay there. You didn't sell gyros that could be put in suits that could kill people, you didn't throw even bad men off of trains, and you didn't avoid your punishment when it was firmly handed to you. I screwed up. Heero and Wu Fei were giving me my punishment. Helping them would not only get them off my back, legally, but I could unload some bad boy baggage too-

Oh, hell, who was I kidding?

I smelled a shirt and decided it was clean enough. I pulled it on, a dark blue thing that hung on me loosely and had the logo of some auto part store on it. A pair of heavy duty jeans went on after that and a pair of steel toed boots.

I stared out at the day through the grimy window. Yeah, I WAS kidding myself. I wanted to join Wu Fei and Heero. I wanted to get back out there and feel that damned adrenalin rush of doing something that mattered. I didn't want to be a failure. I didn't want to end my life as it had pretty much started, poor and on the streets. There was nothing wrong with dealing scrap. There was a certain charge that I got out of owning the business and making the deals, but, it was nothing compared to the charge I had felt when I realized that Heero and Wu Fei needed me, needed my skill, needed me to...

I rubbed the back of my neck and then flopped down, sitting on the bed and braiding my hair. They needed me to be a criminal and contact criminals. Hell, they had thought that I WAS a criminal. Maybe Heero didn't now, but Wu Fei still did. Sure, there was a bit of truth in it, but not to the extent they had imagined. That tainted it, made me even angrier. I didn't know how I could work through that to do what I didn't think I had much choice in doing anyway. I was confused, wanting, but not able to let them get away with screwing me over in thought and deed.

"I need more time to think about this shit!" I grumbled as I tied a ragged, red bandana around my neck and trudged to the front door. I pulled the chair out from under the knob and opened it. Hot hair slapped me in the face. "Fuck you asshole!" I shouted to the nameless bastard who seemed to love hot summer days.

It was then that I saw him. Heero was leaning against the support to my little porch, arms crossed over his chest and head bowed under the brim of his hat. I blinked and had a chill shoot through me, the kind of thing you get when you see a snake almost under your feet. He was covered in yellow dust. His arms were a bit sunburned and already sheened with sweat. He wore a tank top, white, well, it must have been white before the dust decided to mate with it. He wore loose cargo pants, dark green and covered in pockets. His shoes were old, worn, brown leather work boots, the kind scrap men swore by. A tan scarf hung from his neck, already wetted and cooling his neck. His hat.... I blinked at it. It was a scrap man's hat, wide brimmed and made out of woven strips; cloth, leather, even thin bits of aluminum here and there. He looked the part and I knew what part he was trying to play. I leaned against the wall of the shack and glared at him. "No," I said.

The brim lifted and those blue eyes had the smile his face wasn't showing. No, left my vocabulary. "It was a compromise," Heero explained softly. "I didn't want you to blow your position here by being taken to Preventer lock up a second time and Wu Fei didn't trust you enough to be on your own to follow our directions. He thinks you'll flee at the first opportunity and warn everyone about the sting."

"Wu Fei makes sense, but I'm still here, " I grunted. " As for you, you can dress the part, but this kind of work is hard. People here don't trust easy either. They'll wonder why you suddenly took over the business."

"I'm not taking it over," Heero corrected me.

"No, you're sure as hell not!" I snapped back.

He didn't lose his cool. He continued to lounge, as if he had forever to explain. he said, "I am now working for you. We'll spend a month running the business together and then, when your contacts are used to me, used to seeing me working alongside you, then we will put the sting in motion."

"I don't have room and I'm not sure I want to go through with this," I growled.

"Where did Hilde stay?" Heero asked.

I felt my gut tighten. "So, you went through my entire life, is that it?"

"We had to get background information," Heero apologized and he did manage to look troubled by it.

"Hilde stayed where my employees are staying now," I replied, biting out my words.

"They're gone," Heero informed me.

"That's good, because, otherwise, I'd have to go over there and beat the crap out of them for robbing me!" I snarled back.

Heero did straighten then. "They robbed you? I could take a report, have some agents-"

"That would blow your cover," I pointed out. "It'd be better if your friends at Preventer's compensated me instead."

Heero nodded. "I'll see to it."

"Good!" I straightened as well and took a step towards him. "Now, about your plans. I-"

There was a crash and part of my fence came down under the force of a small earthmover. Yellow dust blew towards us and then settled.

"GODDAMIT!" I shouted and forgot everything as I jumped off the porch and ran towards the machine. I jumped on the things' front and clawed my way up to the cab. My surprised neighbor looked at me in shock. "I'm not gone yet, Stubburt! Get the hell out of my yard! You better freakin' fix my fence too!"

The man leaned out of his cab cautiously as he cut the engine. It spluttered to a stop. "Eh, sorry about that, Maxwell. I do get first stake, ya know. You did look like you were going away permanent like."

"Well. I'm not!" I snarled at him and slammed a fist on the window of his cab. It was heavy duty plastic and it thrummed like a drum head. "I'm too damned smart to let cops get anything on me. They had to let me go. I'm still in business!"

"You got nobody to help you," the man pointed out. "Your help is gone. Can't run the place by yourself, kid. Might as well pack it up and let professionals like me take on the yard."

"Fuck You!" I shouted at him and pointed at where Heero had come to stand cautiously by the big wheel of the earth mover. "That's my damned help! Now screw you and get the hell outta my yard!"

The man glared and swore at me. The engine roared to life and I barely had enough time to jump off, before it jerked into motion and pulled back. I landed hard and stumbled. Then I remembered Heero and felt a moment of sheer panic before I saw him backing up and glaring at my retreating neighbor. I joined him and we stared at the broken fence.

"Finder's keepers is rule number one out here," I told him. "You leave it long enough, someone will 'find' it and take it, even your whole yard."

Heero gave me a little smile. "I'm hired, then?"

I glared and then whipped off my scarf to mop at my now sweat and dirt covered face. "Yeah, you're hired, but expect to work your ass off, Yuy. I don't pay slackers... in fact, I don't pay at all. You get a place to stay and you're on your own for meals. I do a scrap deal, you get %5."

"10%," Heero argued, that damned amused glint in his eyes again.

"I barely get 10%!" I retorted, but then I rolled my eyes as if he were breaking me and said, "How about 7%?"

Heero held up his hand and I automatically slapped it with my own, clasped, and then let go as if we had just exchanged some skin. It was a scrap man's 'done deal'. I blinked at him.

"Deal," Heero told me and laughed as he dipped his brim so that I couldn't see his face any longer and walked back towards my shack. He left me with the realization that I had just hired and made a deal to pay a Preventer agent as if he had been someone scrounging the yards for employment. Heero was good. He was damned good.

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	4. Aspirations

Lawless Hearts  
Part 4: Aspirations  
by Kracken

 

"Didn't you get a good look at my shack when you were here last?" I couldn't help asking as we walked up the steps of my porch.

Heero didn't rise to my bait. He said simply, as he stood aside and waited for me to open the door, "I didn't go inside last time."

There was a loud noise and the sound of machinery. I turned with narrowed eyes and watched my neighbor bulldoze a hunk of scrap metal into the breech he had made in my wall. I grunted, but it was better than nothing. I turned back around and opened the door. "Sorry about the mess," I said sarcastically and lead the way inside, hands going deep into my pockets as I hunched in on myself in embarrassment. Why I felt embarrassed I don't know. It was his fault that my place look the way it did.

Heero didn't give anything a critical eye, as I expected. Instead, he looked pained. "They took everything," he said.

"You're assuming that I had much to begin with," I grunted sourly. I righted a chair, shoved it behind my desk, and sat down heavily. "I live kind of spare."

Heero walked over to the peg board behind me on the wall and tried to make sense of my scrawls, my calendar, and a few pics I had tacked up for.... ascetic reasons.

"How do you...," he began, but I cut him off, so sure what he was about to say.

"Yeah, pictures of guys! I'm gay! You're bright, you've figured that out already, right? What's it to you? If it makes you squirm, then get the hell out!" I was surprised by how hot my face got and how I couldn't look at him.

Heero said softly, "I wasn't going to say anything about the pictures. I don't have a problem with your sexual orientation. I was going to ask about your schedule. I don't understand what you've written here."

You think my face was hot before, you could melt Gundanium on it now. I gritted my teeth and then said, trying to be apologetic, "Sorry. Guess I'm used to people having the opposite reaction."

"Hn." He managed to make that sound sympathetic. Amazing.

I tried to get myself back together, tried to push aside all the baggage from yesterday, and yeah, from this morning, dammit, and deal with Heero with a better attitude. I tapped my forehead. "I have it all up here," I told him, "But there's not much to go into my mental files. The business..." Here I had to admit to him my failure and it wasn't easy, not by a long shot. "The business hasn't been doing too good."

He didn't ask why not. I felt stupid for being grateful. Maybe he got how hard it had been for me to say that and was going to give me a breather before the third degree? He said, instead, "I haven't eaten. I'll buy breakfast if you show me where I can buy supplies for the shack I will be staying in."

That sounded less like charity. My stomach was making joyful noises already. "Deal," I said and stood up. "We have a bit of a walk, though. There aren't any shuttles that go between the lots."

"Acceptable," he said in a voice that reminded me of the war. It gave me a chill and I felt the need to get back out into the heat and sunshine. It was brutal, but there was a cleansing property to it. It had the power to make a lot of bad shit go away.

Heero followed me outside. I took a well worn track to the back of my yard and then we went through a rickety gate into the narrow lane between lots. Just then, there was a loud, groaning noise that filled the world. Heero started and glared up at the sky. He had to blink rapidly. The light was coming from the sun, reflected into the station by large collectors. It could be as painful as the actual sun. I didn't bother. I knew what he was seeing; Great slabs of metal extending out of the sides of the station, the whir of turbines, the rush as air was sucked up into them and then released again, the dust devils of yellow and red 'dirt' swirling up along with the oxygen. I counted to twenty and then it stopped and the slabs retracted. The dirt began a lazy, colorful, drift back to the 'ground'.

"Four times a day," I said offhandedly as I began to walk, tying my bandana around my head, the edges drooping down over my face to shade my eyes. "They didn't bother updating the system out here. If it works, don't replace it. L2 wisdom.

Heero, when I glanced at him, was looking disturbed as he followed me.

"You haven't been on L2 long, have you?" I asked.

"No," he replied, confirming my suspicions. "They, they don't have this system in the city."

I grinned. "Nope."

"It must be over fifty years old," he pointed out unnecessarily.

"Eighty-five, actually," I corrected. "Breaks down once in awhile, but even L2 bureaucrats don't want scrap men lives on their hands. They fix them. Not too many have died because of it."  
"Not too many?" Heero was shocked. "That's-"

"Criminal, I know," I chuckled almost evilly. "Get used to it. That's L2."

Heero was silent. We rounded a corner and went in another direction, the yellowish red path seemingly endless as a heat haze obscured the distance. "You've changed," Heero finally said as if he had been chewing hard on that.

I shrugged. "Not really. I've always been this way. I just put on a good show when I was in the war."

"Why?" Heero wondered. "Why bother with a 'show'?"

"Who likes a smart assed, manic depressive, bad tempered, street punk, terrorist?" I laughed, though I wasn't finding much funny about it. It was better to pass it off that way. It hurt a bit less, made the memory of those dark days, that loneliness, that need to be accepted and taken in as a friend by the people around me, less sharp.

"I wanted people to leave me alone," Heero admitted. "I wanted to focus entirely on winning the war."

"You mean, your 'stone cold killer' attitude was just an act too?" I gaped at him and his lips quirked in a smile as he gave one nod. I laughed outright then, imagining it. I sobered when I saw the hint of pain in his blue eyes. It hadn't been easy for him either. Our 'acts' hadn't been bullet proof.

"I guess we're starting over then, getting to know each other," I said as I wiped sweat from my forehead. "No more acts, okay?"

"Agreed," Heero replied and it was as if we were making a pact right then and there.

As we made our way into Market Rowe, Heero trudging and sweating beside me, it was really hard to remember that he was an undercover Preventer agent. When I examined that a little closer, I snorted to myself and called myself an idiot. Sure, it would have been nice to have Heero really work for me, share my space... share my life? I had entertained thoughts like that during the war and a bit afterwards, but it had been clear to me that Relena was the one who had all his attention. I wonder what happened there? Maybe a nobody Gundam pilot hadn't been good enough for her in the end, especially now that she was Queen of everything. Made me feel bad for Heero.

I rubbed at my stomach, remembering him growling at me, angry with me, confused by me, and punching me. Yeah, we'd been close buddies once. Maybe I had a chance to scoop up what Relena had kicked out?... You know, it really isn't worth the effort to be sarcastic to yourself.

"Duo!" A woman drawled and waved energetically from a stall on the side of the dirt road. It was lined with them, filled with everything imaginable being sold by people of all backgrounds.

There was a game to it, at least for me, and haggling was only part of it. I waved back, grinned my widest grin, and sauntered up to the stall. She was a pretty thing in a skirt and top that was made out of heavy duty denim. Her hair was a riot of gold curls under the wide brim of a scrap man's hat and her face was almost angelic with it's big blue eyes. Theresa was a long way from being angelic, though. She winked at me as she turned griddle cakes on a burner with expert ease.

"I'm starving, Theresa," I said as I rubbed my stomach and then let my hand trail down to my crotch. She could wonder what 'hungry' I was talking about.

"Poor thing!" Theresa cooed. She grinned back at me. "I could take care of that hunger, pretty boy." She suddenly turned and gave her skirt a flirtatious flip, revealing, for a bare instant a pink g-string. She turned back around, everything proper again and said huskily as she motioned to her little shack with her spatula, "I've got some privacy back-"

I gave her the patented Duo hang dog eyes. "I want to, really I do, but I have this new guy I have to show around. " I jerked a thumb at the frowning Heero and rolled my eyes. "He needs supplies and I need breakfast, but then we have to do some work. Maybe... later... Because, God, you look absolutely gorgeous today!"

She smirked and flipped a stack of hot cakes onto a piece of sheet paper. She sprinkled sugar on them and tossed them to me. "You can give me a bit and pay me the rest later."

So went the game. When I looked at Heero, he grudgingly came forward and paid the woman a few credits. I gingerly juggled the hot cakes back and forth in my hands, to keep them from getting burned, and said aside to Heero as we moved down the road, "Loosen up, Heero, it's not serious. They just want some attention and I give it to them. If I really turned it up and actually tried getting past that G-string, that pretty little girl would probably get her big ugly husband to knife me."

Heero's eyes went wide. "She's married?"

"Guys work hard here, Heero," I explained with a shrug. "A lot of times they don't have much energy left over for romancing their wives or girl friends. That's why they like flirting with me. I say something nice, they get to dream a raunchy dream of us getting it together, and I go on my way with some stuff with reduced prices and a smile."

Heero grunted, whether in understanding or disapproval, I couldn't tell. Well, fuck him, I thought. If he was going to judge, he was in the wrong damned place.

I leaned into another booth and a frowning woman, with a severe bun, waggled a finger at me. "I'm not Theresa, Maxwell, and I know the score, remember? I deliver your mail."

I blushed uncomfortably. "Yeah, yeah!" I backtracked and motioned to Heero. "She sells good quality stuff. You can't go wrong buying from Kylee."

I watched Heero pick through her supplies. He bought some more clothing, a duster, and some household items. Kylee watched him as if she was puzzled and then I remembered, she was ex military. I felt trepidation tighten my gut, but then she reduced her price for Heero and gave him a serious nod. He nodded back as if they perfectly understood one another and paid her. Taking his bundle, we walked further down the way.

"So, what was that?" I asked, curious.

"Something that isn't a game," Heero replied. "It's respect."

"Isn't that risky?" I wondered, not liking his bit of condescending tone.

"No," Heero replied. "There are so many people who were in the war. It's not suspicious."

"Oh." I mulled that over a minute and then said, "That wouldn't have worked for Theresa."  
He smiled. "No, it wouldn't have."

It was, once again, a meeting of the minds, and it was hard to keep myself from looking like a stunned moron. I remembered how we had worked together during the war. He had been closed off and abrasive, but we still had managed to work together smoothly, knowing, almost instinctively, each other's moves. It had weirded me out then and this 'understanding' wasn't any different now. Me and Heero were getting along. We were... I cut that off, clamped down on it like a sudden wound. He was a cop, I was a scrap man he had suspected of being a thief. He needed me. Street sense kicked in. Like I said before, I haven't lived this long by being stupid, and that goes for being gullible too. Maybe we were becoming friendly, but that didn't warrant me dropping my guard on the off chance that it was true.

"Does it ever rain?" Heero wondered, wincing at the pounding light all around us. Heat like that you could put up with when it was an act of nature. A man didn't have any say in it and just had to endure. When you knew someone's actual finger was on the control, then it got a hell of a lot more personal.

"Not often, rusts the junk and the scrubbers anyway," I told him and then sneered, "And the higher ups like to keep most of the water for their parks and play pools. There's only so much water, after all."

"And that's why we have coolies, ice packs, and personal tundra jackets!" A voice shouted from a stall. A tall, burly man grinned at me and waved to his wares. "If the big guys don't want to give us water and decent temperature, we have to make due ourselves."

"Ignore him," I grumbled and began eating some of my hotcakes now that they had cooled enough. I offered one to Heero and he took it as he looked almost longingly at the gear in the stall. "Don't," I told him. "Get used to the weather, don't fight it with that crap."

Heero walked to the stall anyway and I sighed. He pointed out a hat like his own but made out of straw and cloth strips. The straw made it that much more expensive. The man handed it to him and looked at me appraisingly. I pointedly looked away.

"How ya doin, Maxwell?" the man asked in a suggestive manner. "You get tired of being alone yet? It may be hot, but a man gets a cold bed when he's the only one in it."

I kept looking down the long line of stalls. "Cold can be good, considering the alternative," I said under my breath.

"How much?" Heero asked abruptly. The shopkeeper answered. I winced at the cost. Heero dickered convincingly, and then walked away paying only a little less than outrageous. He surprised me by putting the hat on my head as we walked. "That scarf isn't good enough," he told me.

I couldn't sort out how I felt about that, one part mad about the charity, one part even madder that he thought he could mother me, and another part... almost overwhelmed with... When you see a rich juicy steak, or the sweetest piece of pie you have ever seen, but know that you can't have it because it isn't yours to take... yeah, that was the feeling.

"Why didn't you flirt with him?" Heero asked and there was an edge to his voice I couldn't read.

"He wasn't playing a game," I replied shortly.

Heero finished his shopping and then bought us both bottles of ice cold soda. We drank them as we walked the long, dusty road back to my scrap yard. Going through the gate... You know, you don't realize how alone you are until you leave a crowd of people. It ate at me a little, but then I looked aside at Heero. Guess I really wasn't alone anymore. It was a very good feeling, up until I saw the tax man, standing in his three piece suit, on my porch.

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	5. By the Numbers

Lawless Hearts  
Part 5:By The Numbers  
by Kracken

 

"A friend of yours?" Heero asked me in a tone of voice that let me know that he knew exactly what was going on.

"I don't think he's anyone's friend, well, maybe the rats," I growled.

"Mr. Maxwell," the man greeted me as we stepped onto the porch. "Harold Kimmins, agent for L2 Internal Revenue."

Heero went passed me to open the door and go inside. I watched him put his supplies on my empty desk and that drove home the helplessness of my situation. Laptop; gone. Accounts; gone. Hilde's careful inventory; gone. I'd never flinched, even when faced with a troop of mobile dolls, but this scrawny, little man, with his undertaker's smile, had me shaking in my boots. Forget about me taking down the business, this man could kill it with one stroke of his pencil.

Heero came back out and, hands in pockets, he took up a position beside me as if he were my right hand man. It was comforting, and I wasn't sure why. There wasn't anything he could do to get me out of the mess that I knew was about to descend on Maxwell's scrap yard.

The scrubbers lowered. Kimmins and I stood, poised, used to the distraction, knowing that we had to wait until it was over to continue. Heero fidgeted. The dust made him cough. Kimmins and I had already raised scarfs to block our noses and mouths. The metallic sounds of old machinery in motion ceased. The moving air fell dead and the dirt began it's slow drift back to 'earth'.

Kimmins said, as if there hadn't been any interruption. "We, at the Service, have some questions to ask you after looking at your last tax payment, Mr. Maxwell." He patted the leather case he was holding. "If you could clear up some discrepancies, we would very much appreciate it."

"Discrepancies?" I was stalling. I knew exactly what he was talking about. My mind was going around in circles though, trying to find my way out of the closing jaws of a trap made out of my own creative accounting.

The man nodded to the yard. "You have some equipment that wasn't described in your list of assets and several of your employees have filed for unemployment compensation. There wasn't any mention of employees on your latest return."

The man smiled. Sharks must smile like that, right before they tear into their prey and eat them whole. He knew he had me. He wasn't asking questions because he was confused, he was asking me because he wanted me to break down and admit my errors were on purpose. Duo Maxwell, didn't break under Oz torture, and I certainly wasn't going to go down blubbering in front of this guy. I started to reply, but Heero's hand suddenly closed on my arm. It hurt. It told me how much he wanted me to shut the hell up. I glared at him, but he was ignoring me now, motioning Kimmins inside the shack.

"Let's go sit down, sir," Heero said, but Kimmins didn't think much of my shack. He looked uncomfortable, ready to balk. Heero didn't give him the chance. He all but herded Kimmins inside and pulled up a chair at the desk for him.

"I am limited on time," Kimmins said, meaning he didn't want to stay long for fear he might contract something from my dump.

"This won't take long," Heero assured him. He took off his hat and ran a hand through his dark hair as he explained, "Duo Maxwell recently lost his accountant and was forced to do the returns himself to make the deadline. He was completely unaware of the equipment that his accountant mistakenly didn't add to her report. As for the employees, they didn't work for Mr. Maxwell, but were squatting on his property. Since they were indigents, Mr. Maxwell didn't have the heart to evict them. If we may have an extension form, and a form to correct the return, I'm certain Mr. Maxwell can have it completed in a timely fashion and pay any amount due in monthly payments."

Kimmins frowned. "Payments, sir?"

I felt like a third wheel, a spectator, a fly on the wall, but I wasn't about to break in while Heero was obviously saving my ass. I backed up into a corner and just let him have his room.

"Mr. Maxwell was robbed. Many of his assets and records were stolen," Heero explained. "It will take time for him to reconstruct those records and recover from the monetary loss. I believe that there is a program for hard luck cases to make payments until their tax bill is paid?"

Kimmins looked very unhappy. "There is.... but there will be penalties, sir."

"Of course," Heero replied.

"Hmmm..." Kimmins frowned. He didn't want to help me. He wanted the kill, the taste of taxpayer blood, but he couldn't refute what Heero was saying. With an exasperated sound, he began pulling forms from his case. Heero took them, checked them over to make sure they were the proper ones, and then thanked Kimmins. Kimmins looked Heero over, thinking, 'scrap man' , but he asked instead, dubiously, "Will you be doing Mr. Maxwell's accounts now?"

"No," Heero replied. "Mr. Maxwell will be retaining an accountant from now on."

"Good," Kimmins grumbled as he closed his case and stood up. He dusted at his impeccably tailored suit with flicking fingers as he made his way to the door. "You won't get another chance to get it right, I warn you."

"Understood," Heero replied.

Kimmins left and I closed the door behind him. I watched him leave the lot through a murky window before turning to Heero. I was extremely embarrassed. "Hilde used to do all the paperwork," I said, rubbing the back of my neck nervously. "I don't have much talent for it."

I expected Heero to ride me over it, to demand explanations, but, instead, he picked up his supplies. I noticed that he left one bag behind. I began picking it up, thinking that he wanted me to help him, but he shook his head.

"That's for you," Heero told me and then, knowing I needed to hear it, he added, "You can pay me back later."

That helped, like someone taking a few grains of sand from a mountain, the mountain of embarrassment and helplessness that was currently crushing me. I couldn't look at him as I opened the door and followed him outside. The silence between us, as we walked to the back of the lot, was full of what I imagined he was thinking. I couldn't help but try to explain, not taking him up on his silent offer to forget it.

"I'm good at dealing," I said. "I'm good with mechanics, with fixing this garbage and getting someone to buy it, but I'm not good at paperwork, at the inventory, at keeping all of this scrap straight. Hilde was good at that, real good."

"It doesn't take talent," Heero replied as if he were amused, damn him. "It takes education. I... I had a few problems of my own when I was fresh out of the war and trying to find my place."

My eyes went wide. "You did?" I put two and two together. "You knew about all of that back there because you went through it too?"

Heero nodded. For once, I kept my big mouth shut and gave him the same courtesy that he had given me. I didn't ask and I didn't condemn. "I learned," he offered, "To not do it myself. There are experts that deal with that."

I grimaced. "In case you didn't notice, Heero, I'm kind of short on credits."

"Not for long," he told me. "Working together, I think we can make more of this machinery run and saleable."

That had been a problem with Hilde. She could fly and operate a suit, but actually fixing them, or anything else, had been out of her expertise. It had seemed like a good partnership, I fixed and she did the paperwork. Unfortunately, as Heero had pointed out, I could fix things and prepare scrap for sale, by myself, only so quickly. You couldn't get credits if you didn't have anything for sale.

We reached the shack at the back of the lot, Heero silent and me with possibilities whirling in my head. That stopped when we opened the door and a smell wafted out that was indescribable. There were three cots lined up along the walls. The floor between them was littered with filth. Pee and vomit mingled with rotten food. I backed up from the door and put my scarf over my nose.

"Shit!" I exclaimed.

"Probably," Heero replied, dead pan, but he was looking as disgusted as I was.

I plucked at his tank top. "Come on. You are NOT staying here."

Heero frowned and ignored my attempt to make him come away. "It has to be cleaned, regardless of whether I stay here or not."

"I could just burn it," I protested.

Heero grunted. "Too many fines."

"You can't be serious," I protested again, when I saw that set, stubborn look on his face, the one he wore when he was determined to accomplish something even if he died doing it.

"I'll need to stay with you a few nights until I have it cleaned," Heero told me and it was a question.

I mentally stepped on the part of me that jumped like a freakin, over excited, kid and refrained from shouting, 'Yahoo!' It wasn't a date. It wasn't an offer of anything other than a platonic 'sleep over'. Get real, Maxwell, I told myself sternly. Heero was going to be uncomfortable enough sleeping close quarters with a gay man, let alone a gay man who was drooling all over him... well, not drooling... more like longing... strike that... wanting.... hoping... Okay, there wasn't a good way to say that I had just kissed heaven and couldn't help peeking at a very big dream, one that I had tucked away since the war. It had been ready and waiting for just this incredibly impossible moment.

He's not gay, he's not gay, he's not gay. I said it at least five times to myself before I was able to grin at Heero and say with some control, "Okay, you bunk on my futon, but I'm helping you hose this place out. It is mine, after all."

Heero replied, "Help would be appreciated."

"Good." I plucked at his tank top again, "Now let's get the hell away from here before I add to the decor."

Heero laughed and we walked back towards my shack. I looked sideways at him and said, "I don't remember you ever laughing, well, except in that really evil way you had during the war."

"Evil?" Heero smirked. "I think I was attempting to sound mature."

I laughed then, too. "Mature? It was pretty damned psychotic sounding, Heero."

The ground suddenly started to shake. I crouched, hands braced flat on the ground. Heero looked at a loss. I jerked on his pants as he swayed and then he followed my lead, crouching as well. The shaking grew stronger and a low groan of a stressed machine echoed everywhere. Some of my scrap tumbled from their piles, metallic clangs adding to the noise. When the shaking ceased, I slowly straightened along with Heero and continued walking.

"What was that?" Heero asked in trepidation, his eyes raking the station walls all around us. Maybe he was imaging a breech.

"Nobody knows what causes that," I told him. "It happens once in awhile, not too often. Maybe it has to do with the rotation of the station, or the moisture collectors, or the scrubbers, or the pipes underground... or- well, it only happens on this end of the station, so, of course, no one's been out to fix... whatever it is."

Heero grunted. "Meaning, no one has died yet, so it's okay?"

"Right," I replied brightly. "You kind of have to have faith that it all holds together, Heero, or you'll go crazy real quick."

We reached my shack and went inside. It was air conditioned, but only a few degrees cooler than outside. It was much better to turn on the overhead fans and open the venting traps in the floor that lead to cooler temperatures far below us. It saved on the cost of energy. Heero watched me open them up and lean over one to catch the updraft of cool air.

"Doesn't that vent gasses from below too?" Heero wondered with a frown.

I lifted a finger and wagged it at him, "Try not to think about stuff like that Heero. The average person on the bad side of L2 lives to be seventy five and most people breathe the dirt and the vent gases. Maybe it is bad, but not too bad. A person gets a rawer deal from radiation on freighter ships."

Cooler, I tossed my hat onto the desk and carried my bag into my room. Heero followed. Putting the packages on the floor, we sorted through them. Meal packs were self heating, we stacked them in a low cupboard. Drinks were sealed and had cold tabs or heat tabs, depending on how you wanted it. They went in the cupboard as well. It was the real food that needed the small refrigerator. Screwed to the floor because of the infrequent shakes, my three thieves hadn't been able to steal it. We shoved in some vegetables, some meat packs, and, wonder of wonder, junk food, including a six pack of soda. I grinned at Heero.

"I took you for someone who eats healthy," I told him.

Heero shrugged. "My trainers didn't allow junk food and I was afraid it would impair my efficiency during the war. Now, I don't have to worry about that." He blushed. I stared and grinned wider.

"Trying to capture some of that lost youth, right?" I asked knowingly.

He looked at me, those blue eyes almost pained and apologetic. He actually felt guilty for wanting to turn back the wheels of time that had run roughshod over our lives.

I pulled out a soda and tossed him one. Getting one for myself, I popped off the top and took a swig as I sat cross legged on the bed. "Look, Heero, there's nothing wrong with that. We're still young. Maybe we have to make our way in the big universe, but we can still have some fun and act like kids once in awhile too. We can drink soda and eat..." I looked at the cookies and chips, "stuff that is absolutely no good for us."

Heero fiddled with his bottle. "The training has been very hard to overcome... and people gave up their lives to make me what I am. I feel-"

I cut that off, "Made you what you WERE, buddy," I corrected him. "Now you're just Heero Yuy, Preventer agent. A young guy with one hell of a junk food tooth."

He blushed again and took a drink of his soda to cover the uncomfortable moment. I really needed to break through that embarrassment, I felt. I could see that he was blowing his 'dietary lapse' way out of proportion. I gave me a window into the man sitting next to me. He was still a soldier deep down, still worried about staying in top condition, still thinking, maybe, that he was just a weapon for peace and didn't deserve the new lease on a normal life that he had been handed. Yeah that was reading a lot into a few bags of chips and some sugary junk food, but I had never blushed in shame over a twinkie.

"I think that's a lot better than the alternatives," I told him, leaning back so that I was supported by the wall. "I did some drinking and smoking... tobacco and some stuff I thought would make me forget a lot of things." I was the one who was blushing and looking ashamed now, but I had more of a damned reason. "It wasn't for long, though. Quatre caught me and ran me through rehab and some sessions with a psychologist. Hilde came to my rescue after that and we set up business. I've been clean since then. I was just damned stupid and... overwhelmed. So, you see, I'd rather be addicted to some potato chips than the harder stuff."

"I'm sorry," Heero said and he sounded very sympathetic, almost sad. "You made a life and we came crashing in and turned it upside down."

Oh, yeah, I forgot... I'd been going out of business when that happened. My 'new life' hadn't been going that well. Heero and Wu Fei's sting had actually been a nice distraction from that, a way to escape it, despite the way they had treated me. I'd been talking as if my life had been a success story, screwed up Maxwell gets shit together and has perfect life. That had been true in the beginning. It wasn't true now.

Dr. G told me once, that life is full of opportunities, a person just had to stick his hand out and grab them. I had unintentionally grabbed a handful of thorns and I wasn't eager to grab again. I had to, though. You didn't survive, you didn't make it, by hesitating, by being chicken. I had to take this ride to the end, I thought, and then jump off when it died. Hopefully, there would be another ride after that and I would be ready to take it.

"Honey stick?" Heero offered and held out a slim tube of amber, sugared, honey.

I looked at him as I took the tube and he smiled. He knew what I was thinking, I was sure of it, though I don't know why I was. I was thoroughly convinced, somehow, that he knew all my troubles and that he was not only sympathetic, but 'there' for me. So much I could read into a simple offer of junk food. I wanted to make fun of myself, call myself some choice names, 'sucker' and 'dreamer' being two of them, but, you know, I didn't.... because I didn't really want to, just then. It felt too good believing that Heero was caring about me.

"Thanks, " I said, meaning a lot with that one word. He nodded and we both sat back and reverted back to childhood as we sucked on our honey sticks.

 

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	6. Sweat and Tears

Lawless Hearts  
Part 6: Sweat and Tears  
by Kracken

 

I'd grown up on the streets and stayed in strange places. I could sleep anywhere and at anytime. I was a switch; on and off. That night though, as the reflectors overhead tilted away from the sun and darkness crept across L2, I was wide awake and snatching glimpses of Heero where he lay on the futon. The agents hadn't damaged it that bad and Heero said it was more than he was used to. He had undressed down to a gray pair of cotton boxers, with buttons on the front, and left his tank top on. I had watched his muscles flex and bunch as he had stretched out and made himself comfortable. I had stared when he had run a hand through his unruly hair, sighed, and simply gone to sleep... the way I wanted to right now. It didn't help that the security lights out on the scrap lot were coming through the window and making him ... well... glow and very visible.

When I had asked about clothing, Heero had pulled a duffel bag from beneath the stairs. He had shrugged and said something to the effect that he hadn't wanted to presume his welcome that much and make me angry unnecessarily. He had figured, after the day before, that I was angry enough. When he had gone to shower, I had, of course, gone through his things. Socks, underwear, tshirts, tank tops, and a few pairs of jeans were all he had. His gun was conspicuously missing. There wasn't any way that he could hide it in those shorts that he was wearing. That made me scratch my head. An unarmed Heero Yuy just didn't seem right, somehow. The man I remembered, wouldn't have taken a chance like that. That made me narrow my eyes and look at Heero in a different way, one that didn't involve my long neglected libido. What if he had someone watching us, Preventer agents using the station security grid to spy on us?

My paranoia made me twitch the curtains closed. That let in some light still, but not enough to actually see anything. My libido wanted to strangle me, but my street sense was nodding sagely and agreeing. I listened to Heero breathe and could almost hate that street sense, the instinct that would never really let me drop my guard. It had kept me alive, but it had made me lonely too. How could anyone get close to me when I couldn't bring myself to ever trust them?

I tried to get comfortable. I had on an oversized shirt that fell to my knees and some cotton shorts with an athletic logo on them. Hilde had bought them for me. I'd never been much on sports. Heero had given it a once over look and I had felt kind of awkward. His look hadn't said anything and I had hoped it would. Stupid, stupid hope. I never could keep it bottled up for long. Here I was, sleeping next to Heero Yuy, not only straight, but probably just the tip of a huge, undercover, Preventer sting operation that might be watching us right then and there. Sure, we had shared confidences, and I don't think he could have pretended his emotions that well, but duty was duty and it had used to be Heero's middle name. I mentally shot a rubber band at 'hope' and it ran away yelping.

I finally drifted off to sleep. I had uneasy dreams though, about the war of course, but something soothed me out of them each time before they became too bad. When I finally awoke, I sat up yawning, and found Heero's futon empty, just the impression of his body left behind.

I took my morning shower, shaved what few whiskers I still had trouble growing, brushed my teeth, and then pulled on jeans and a tshirt. Padding out of the bedroom, I found the little office empty as well. Heero's duffel was still there, though, and the remains of a meal pack in the garbage. He was still around, maybe looking over the yard. I didn't want to think that he had gone to the other shack to begin cleaning. No, sireee, not before some strong coffee and some time to wrap my head around the day.

After the last of my uneasy night faded away, and my coffee was gone, I finally shoved my feet into my boots and opened the front door. Heat blasted me. Furious, I ran off the porch, picked up a chunk of scrap, and threw it at the sky, screaming, "FUUUUCK YOUUUUU!!!" It landed with a clatter and Heero came out from behind a pile of machine parts.

Heero peered up at the sky briefly, his wide brimmed hat shading his eyes, and then he looked at me in amusement. "I hope you aren't suggesting that the weather control technician is God?"

I scowled and shoved hands deep into my jean pockets. "What else am I going to get mad at? The equipment for the heat, and other things, are on the hull of the satellite, so... I toss shit at the sky."

My reference to 'other things' didn't phase Heero, maybe I was being too subtle or he was just playing dumb. He went into the shack, came back with my hat, and handed it to me. "I was doing an inventory," he told me. "We should finish it together and send off the amended report to who ever you choose as your accountant."

"Credits," I reminded him sourly. "I have zero for accountants."

Heero had a plan. I could see it on his face. In fact, he was excited about it. My paranoia suddenly floundered. Just then, I could see, as plain as day, Heero's eagerness to help me and his enthusiasm for the challenge. He wouldn't look like that if he was scamming me, would he?

Hope was poking it's grinning head up again. My street instincts wanted a mallet to smash it back down. I didn't have one handy though, so Hope came out, all bright eyed and bushy tailed. God, I could be such a sucker... well, when it came to Heero, I amended. I wanted to believe in him. I wanted...

"If we work together," Heero said, "We can be done quickly. Once we know what you have, then we can sort out the most saleable parts, fix them, and put them on the market."

I snorted. "What do we put inventory on, our fingers and toes? My laptop was stolen, remember?"

Heero pulled out a small, handheld computer from his pocket. The thing was as small and as thin as a credit card.

"Do you use that to keep touch with the agents watching us?" I was mad, okay? He'd hidden that from Duo Maxwell, street smart, gundam pilot. It made me wonder what else he had managed to keep from me. I'm not good at keeping my emotions inside. I was never good at subtle or holding the cards until the right moment. If I had them, I played them, and waited to see how the chips fell.

Heero's face looked puzzled and then set hard as he figured out what I was talking about. "We are not being monitored."

"No?" I arched a cinnamon eyebrow at him, the one that told him I wasn't eating that shit up. "You aren't armed. You aren't the kind of guy to do that unless you know you have backup."

"Do scrap men have weapons?" Heero wanted to know, but I could tell he already knew the answer.

"Not usually," I replied with a growl.

"Do they often work with a glock stuck in the back of their jeans?" Heero persisted almost coldly. When I looked away, scowling and flushing, he replied for me. "No, they don't. I'm undercover. I can't have a weapon. That's taking a chance, I know, but this is a sting operation that will take time to develop. I can't afford to have someone question me. As for being monitored. That's out of the question. The people we are trying to arrest might question our interest in the scrap yards on L2."

My eyes widened and I looked at him sharply. "You mean... it goes up that high?" When he nodded, I whistled. "Nobody's dared go after them before Heero. That's damned dangerous."

"It is," Heero agreed and then looked troubled, "Which is why I wished that I had protested more when it was suggested that we tap you for the sting. I thought-"

I grimaced. "You thought I wasn't too far down on the food chain from them, I know. " My face cleared then as it hit me, Heero had just exonerated himself and I was the dickhead with the overactive paranoia. That deserved a... "I'm sorry, okay?" I rubbed at the back of my neck nervously. "I've had a rough life. Trust isn't something I indulge in often." Okay, not at all, but he didn't have to be told that.

Heero relaxed and he gave me that smile, the one that made me feel real good inside. "I shouldn't expect anything else," he said. "We didn't start out very well."

"You can sure as shit say that again!" I grumbled and then nodded at the piles of scrap. "Should we get started?"

"Duo..." Maybe Heero was going to apologize for that rough beginning. I cut him off.

"Forget about it, Heero," I told him as I began walking to a pile, "Done is done. If you stop and dwell on that stuff it drags you down and under. A guy has to keep looking forward. I'm sorry, you're sorry, so everything is okay."

And it was. No, I didn't trust him completely, but, as we scrambled and sweated over my inventory, I knew I was as close to it as I could get.

Heero, was meticulous and focused. I was all over the place, getting distracted by every little thing and, basically, just getting overwhelmed by it all. He kept me on track, kept me from wandering from pile to pile, and mapped out a system. I had looked at everything and judged it 'endless'. He had looked at it and judged it 'doable in short order'. Heero showed me very quickly that he was right. We didn't count every scrap, as I had feared. Instead, we estimated, and concentrated on getting the larger, more expensive, items on the lot counted. Machinery was easy. I had one crane with a bucket claw and an interchangeable grappler. It did the work of the machines that I had never been able to afford. What it didn't do, though, had to be made up in backbreaking hand labor. I saw Heero look over the rusted, on it's last legs monstrosity, and then look at me before he entered a low ball value.

I really hate pity, always have, always will. It was like the spike in a coffin, you're already dead, now let's desecrate the corpse. It made my temper flare instantaneously. I wanted to yell at Heero, say something to make myself feel better, but... I didn't. What the hell was there to say? There had to be a redeeming quality somewhere in order to have a comeback. I couldn't think of anything.

We finished just after midday cycle and I stood stupidly, wiping sweat and dirt off my face with my bandana, hardly believing it, as Heero tallied everything up. When he looked up, I expected the worst. I wasn't ready for him to look pleased.

"You have some very saleable machines here," he told me. "They're just in pieces. If we gather all of those pieces together, we can rebuild them and have a tidy sum to recharge your credits."

I blinked at him. "Pieces?"

Heero waved to the scrap heaps as he finished his entries. "You have them scattered everywhere. I took notes on each machine part I spotted and added them to a running tally as we worked."

"I... I guess I'm a lot more unorganized than I thought." I'd been sitting on money and hadn't known it. That Heero had to point it out to me... me, a damned scrap man... It was harder to swallow than pity. I said, a bit defensive, "Maybe they were unworkable parts and that's why I never bothered?"

Heero looked up and, finally, saw how strung tight I was. "That could be. Duo...," He paused and chose his words carefully, not wanting me to get even more upset. "This isn't a one man operation. You deserve a lot of credit for taking the business as far as you did, considering the level of competition."

I let out a little breath, my anger escaping like steam out of a pressure cooker. I hid under the brim of my hat. "Yeah, thanks..." My pride wasn't going to be picky about what bones it was thrown.

"Look, Duo," Heero began, acting unsure. "Is it all right if we wait another day to clean the other shack? I think we should get these parts together and in working order as soon as possible."

"Why should I mind?" I wondered.

"You didn't sleep very well," Heero pointed out. "My presence must be bothering you."

I was in love with the brim of my hat. It hid a lot, including the scalding blush across my face. The ground had suddenly become very interesting. Oh, look, fine particles of metal. I wonder what that did to a man's lungs? Okay, think, think, think... I can't say, 'You're so damned everything I ever wanted in a man, I couldn't stop ogling you.' It had to be more... reasonable and less... threatening. I didn't want Heero to suddenly find the porch, or my office desk, more comfortable than being in the same room with me. Ah, I think I had it and it was kind of the truth... "Seeing you again, talking like we did last night," I explained, "It made me remember the war. I had some nightmares. I don't expect that to keep happening though, so, yeah, you can hang in my place a few extra days. If we don't start making credits, neither of us is going to have to worry about which shack we're in, we won't have a lot to stay in."

"Agreed," Heero said and he made me feel like I was a genius with that one word, like I had just calculated Pi to the nth degree while standing on my head whistling... Jeez! I had it bad! I used to hate people who hung on someone like this. I used to call them stupid, moron, gullible...

Heero pocketed his computer and began climbing up a pile of scrap to reach whatever he had spotted there earlier. All thoughts of what an idiot I really was, went out of my head. Heero was wearing blue jeans, faded and dirty, but they were tight across his ass and I had a good view of that as he climbed to a point above me. I also had a good view of-

"Help me get this out?" Heero called down.

I had to shake myself out of my horn dog, glazed, coma. "Uh... coming... uhm... I mean, be right there." I was really getting used to blushing now, but that blush combined with a sudden attack of 'what the hell?' when I saw Heero look down at me and... smirk. He... he had caught my slip, my inner raunchy thoughts revealed in one stupid word, and he was... not mad... not uncomfortable.. not ready to punch me. He had smirked.

The smirk went away as he frowned down at the twenty pound hunk of machine half buried in rusted junk. "It won't move," he told me, all business now. "If we pull together... but we have to be careful. This pile isn't that stable."

I eyed the pile that went up another six feet, some of it was heavy. "Get down and I'll get the claw. I'll shift some of this to another pile," I suggested.

He nodded as he wiped sweat from his brow. His hair hung in strands over those dark, blue eyes and a slight burn was starting to pink his cheeks. I blurted it, the question that I just couldn't keep inside, a question I had never though to ask Heero Yuy, supposed worshiper of Relena Peacecraft. "Are you gay, Heero?"

Heero laughed, his eyes twinkling at me. "I always envied that about you; fearless, uncaring of consequences."

I blinked and smiled at him daringly. "Well?"

Heero paused, adjusted the brim of his hat, and then said, looking out across my scrap lot, "Do you remember back at Preventer headquarters... when the doctor was looking at your magazines?"

I grunted. "Yes."

Heero paused again and then the pink on his cheeks grew brighter. "That issue he was holding... it was my favorite too."

I gaped, I laughed, and then we got back to work with a new understanding.


	7. Topping it Off

Lawless Hearts  
Part 7: Topping It Off  
by Kracken

 

The work was back breaking, long, and when we had everything stacked to sort through the next day, I was almost thankful that I was too exhausted to think about other things, like how I was going to deal with Heero in a cramped room now that I knew why my being gay didn't bother him at all.

Just because Heero was gay too, didn't make him a free for all. In fact, our closeness could generate a whole lot of uncomfortableness that his being straight had avoided. We weren't roommates without common ground in the sex department anymore, we now had... potential? I winced inwardly. Not potential, in that something might develop between me and Heero, but potential that one, Duo Maxwell, could end up doing something very, very stupid that might be misunderstood... or, not misunderstood, but rejected with one, Heero Yuy, putting a fist into Duo Maxwell's eye.

He might be gay, but Heero probably had someone. I mean, look at the man; muscled, confident, a Preventer... yeah, he definitely had someone waiting at home for him. Maybe two someone's, maybe three, maybe... maybe I could be number four?

I shook my head sharply and tossed the last part on the list down to where Heero was waiting at the foot of the scrap pile I was standing on. Get done, I told myself, eat, take a shower, make small talk, go to bed. Keep your libido in your pants. It was just too easy to buy into the con, to forget that Heero was only here, with me, because he wanted to nail some bad guys. Okay, bad choice of words. Sure, Heero was being nice to me... and... well... friendly... but that didn't mean he was going to toss the entire operation, change jobs to become a junk man, and live forever after with me in my little shack on L2, with a dog, a cat, a business, and hot, lickety loving on a daily basis.... Okay, concentrate Maxwell... finish work, eat, shower, sleep... finish work, eat, shower, sleep... I really didn't want a punch in the eye.

There was a groan far above me and the light changed subtly. I blinked and looked upward from my perch on top of the scrap pile. The reflectors, that were keeping us boiling hot by catching the rays of the sun, were turning. I watched them in trepidation. Someone high up on the food chain had decided that he'd had enough of warm summer days. That could be good or bad, depending on what he was in the mood for now. I really, really didn't want snow...

The reflectors stopped and I heard a collective cheer from the other yards, hooting and hollering, as the reflectors stopped and the air cooled about twenty degrees. There was even a light breeze. I laughed, whipped off my hat, and stretched out my arms to catch it. It chilled the sweat on my body, but I grinned for all I was worth as the small, loose strands of my hair, fluttered around my face and I felt a moment of pure bliss.

Looking down at last, I caught Heero watching me. I couldn't read that look. He was smiling, but his gaze was very intense, as if he were looking at me and seeing something very, very... interesting? Ridiculous? Embarrassing? I just couldn't figure it out. I shrugged as I half slid, half climbed down to the ground.

"Sorry, just felt good," I mumbled and stared at my feet as I jammed my hat back on.

"You looked..." Heero just stopped talking. I dared to look at him, then, from under the brim of my hat. He was looking away uncertainly. Great! He thought I was a lunatic.

I sighed and tapped the part he was holding. "Put that with the rest and we'll call it a day."

Heero swallowed hard, shifted the part from hand to hand, and then nodded as he walked over to the pile and put it with the right collection of junk.

The metal all around us made noises. The temperature had changed quickly and heated junk was cooling off and contracting. I eyed the sky. Sometimes, that kind of weather change made rain, but I didn't see any. Maybe the god of the temperature control had compensated for that. It was hard to generate the usual hate, though, when I was enjoying cool weather at last.

Heero joined me and we made our way back to the shack. "I call the shower first," Heero said as we climbed the steps of the porch.

"Bastard!" I retorted, shoved my dirty hands in my pockets, and growled, "Okay." I'd always respected 'dibbs'.

"While you shower," Heero offered, "I'll heat up dinner and put it out on the porch. We should enjoy the weather while it lasts."

"Sounds good," I replied, easing up on my irritation. "You're right about enjoying it. We might get weather like this once in a blue moon."

Heero was frowning now as we went into the shack and he began pulling off his filthy tank top on the way to the shower. "I just don't understand why they keep it so damned hot here."

"Maybe the guy in charge likes the power of making us suffer," I snorted as I sat on the edge of the futon and worked off my steel toed shoes. I shrugged. "Or the damn reflectors could be so old they just don't work ninety percent of the time when they try to turn them. Who knows...."

Heero raised eyebrows at the latter. "It would go along with what I've seen so far...."

Heero kicked off his shoes, scattering red/yellow dust on my floor, unzipped his jeans, and dropped them. Yes, he had those gray, button down underwear of his on, but.... My eyes were probably like huge, purple saucers. I really hadn't expected a strip show and I was just too exhausted to hide, and or recover, from the shock all that well. Heero was kicking off his jeans, though, oblivious, as he padded over to the bathroom.

His legs were like muscled works of art, arched, and corded. His skin was scarred here and there, like mine, but it still seemed wonderful to me. His arms were strong and his hands broad. His shoulders were well defined. I could call him slim and wiry, but that made you think of a weak person. Heero was compact manliness; a well honed, perfectly sculpted... and, God! Would you look at his little, rounded ass!

My hands covered and pushed down the sudden rise in my jeans. I swallowed hard and forced myself, and I mean, really forced myself, to turn away. The door closed firmly and the water in the shower went on. I had, maybe, five minutes. No, I'm not ashamed... a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do. I said hello to Mr. Hand in the office, made myself into a post coital, exhausted, Duo Maxwell, cleaned myself up, and was back on the edge of the futon like nothing had happened by the time Heero came back out.

Rubbing his dark hair dry with a towel, Heero said unnecessarily, "Your turn."

No, your turn, I thought irritably as I began undressing in front of him. Well, he was gay! He must have known what the hell he was doing, right? You called people like that teases. I tried not to think that maybe I was so low on his scale of interest, that he hadn't even thought about it. I did have a bit of ego, thank you very much. Heero just didn't seem the kind of guy to dangle himself like that, though... I mean... why tease me if he wasn't... if he didn't want... if I wasn't someone who... Finish work... well, we're past that, eat... no, shower, then eat, then go to bed... I forgot about teasing Heero. I kicked off my jeans and stomped into the bathroom.

Looking myself in the cracked mirror, I tapped my reflection on the forehead. "Stop it!" I whispered very low to myself. Hope peeked up over my shoulder and giggled at me. It wasn't giving up no matter what the odds were against Heero and me getting together... against a guy in a position like Heero's and a lowly scrap guy like me getting together... against someone who had shown zero interest in me during the war and had run after Miss Pacifist getting together... against a cop on a mission and someone one step from jail getting together... Hope grinned, undaunted, ignoring plain logic, plain reality, as I imagined what it would be like... Heero and me rolling around in sheets, naked, crying out, saying... well, whatever the hell people say when they really...

I needed a damned Hope exorcist! I turned the water on cold and gave us both a freezing shower.

When I left the shower, convinced I could face the man without embarrassing myself too much, I found Heero sprawled out asleep on his futon. The food was steaming hot and it looked as if he had been waiting for the heat tabs to do their job.

"Damn," I muttered, feeling somehow cheated.

I gingerly swung Heero's legs up onto the futon and covered him with a blanket. The heat generators turned on at night to keep the temperatures at their settings, but working all day in the heat, and then showering, could chill a person just by dropping their body temperature that fast... okay, so I was making excuses to touch him and tuck him in. Let's get over it.

I took my food and an ice cold soda out onto the porch, sat with my back supported against a porch post, and stared off into the darkness at the blobs that were my inventory, as I ate dinner.

A rat scurried by. My neighbors were shouting at each other, something about engines and rusted fuel cells. There was the sound of metal settling, pinging, and, once in awhile, falling with clatters and klinks, down from their perches. This was peaceful on L2, as quiet and as calm as it ever got. Against that backdrop, I found my mind trying to sort out what had happened to my life in such a short time. It had turned into a runaway train, jumping the tracks of the nose to the grindstone, barely eeking out a living, course that it had been on. Yeah, I was still doing all of those things, but there was a drastic, new, dimension to it all.

To tell the truth, I had been damned lonely. Hilde had filled the evening quiet with chatter and her bright eyed optimism. It had hurt like hell when that optimism had died and I had seen that 'Oh, how I pity you, you sorry bastard,' look on her face as she had told me that she needed new digs, a new man in her life, one actually interested in her, and a future. That last had really hurt. There wasn't any future for Duo Maxwell, those words had implied, nothing to hitch your star to and ride along on. Maxwell's ship was sinking and the rats had jumped off.... another rat skittered by,... well, one rat at least.

No, that wasn't fair. I shoved aside my food and took a long swig of cold soda. It felt good going down, icy and stinging. You couldn't blame a girl for wanting a regular life, for getting tired of scrap splinters and dust down her throat. The city life suited her better. Being away from me, and my Titanic, ditto.

I sat with my arms supported by my knees, head hanging, as I stared at nothing. For the millionth time, I thought of selling my business to my nemesis next door, to scrubbing myself clean, changing my job title, and never getting yellow-red sand up my underwear on a regular basis, again. I thought about cool office buildings, an important name badge, and... what... security forces? Preventers, like Heero? I thought about starched uniforms and a loaded gun at my side. It rode the edge of an adrenalin rush, just thinking about danger, guns, danger, guns.... I stopped that in it's tracks and shifted gears with an effort and another swig of soda. I could vend hotdogs on a street corner. Nothing wrong with that...

I reached down, took a fistful of dirt and rusted metal particles, and let it sift back down through my fingers. It was gritty, hard, and some of it tried to embed itself into my flesh. I know that the thrill of battle, of being on missions, was like a drug I could never see myself really getting over, but... I tried to imagine letting that son of a bitch next door have my business, saw him, in my mind's eye, laughing as he bulldozed down my wall and claimed my stuff, the crap that I had sweated blood over.

"Over my fucking dead body!" I snarled and tossed the rest of the dirt down.

I rubbed my hand on my clean jeans and thought about war paint. It was like a war, except for the part where I couldn't kill my enemies. I had staked out my battle ground and it was an acre of L2 dirt and scrap metal. Losing that war, just didn't seem to be a real choice. It was too much like hanging by my fingernails over a huge, bottomless chasm, and then letting go. I was that sure that I wouldn't ever hit bottom and would never be able to climb up again.

When it came down to it, I suppose, this was my Duo Maxwell proving ground, the place where I proved that I could be something other than an orphan, a stowaway sweeper, and, well, a killer. I know it was a bit messed up, okay, maybe a lot messed up, to put all my hopes on this, as if it was my only shot, but I'd seen a lot of guys take the easy way out after the war, the one that was the alternative to living in a peaceful world they didn't know how to handle. I felt... like... like I could be one of them, all too easily, though, maybe.... deep down... I probably knew I wouldn't. Just the potential scared me, though... scared me enough not to give up... ever... not until this life was pried, forcefully, from my fingers.

"Screw you and go to hell," I told my neighbor and toasted him with the last of my soda. I stood up then, but didn't go back inside. Heero was there, after all, and, even asleep, I was finding it hard to face him.

He was a Preventer agent. He was with me because he wanted to use me. He wanted to put me in danger and endanger my business by dangling me and using my business as a front. I thought of what would happen when he arrested 'who ever he was'. Heero Yuy would get his man, I didn't doubt it. He was that good and It was all about 'when and not 'if'.

Heero could ruin me, whether I helped him or not. He could put me in jail, maybe not on the original charges, but on a shitload of other things. Laws on L2 were numerous, complicated, petty, and just plain stupid. Walking and chewing gum could probably get you a life sentence. Using those laws, Heero could kill me by slow degrees as well, fining me for everything from scrap piles too big, to my toothbrush not being regulation size.

Heero could also just make me disappear.

There were so many ways that I was boxed, locked, and gift wrapped. I mentally practiced facing my fellow junk men and imagining myself telling them that I hadn't known anything about the sting. I could pull it off, maybe, if the guy going to jail was high enough up. All scrap men, deep in their hearts, wanted revenge on every one of those government bastards. That was taking a chance, though, gambling that it wasn't a fellow scrap man. If it was, the others would take me out, either by cutting off my suppliers, my customers, or my legs out from under me, literally...

Logic told me that I should go in there and beat the crap out of Heero. I should have been really pissed. I should have been.... should have wanted to... but I didn't. I could see his blue eyes in my mind, smiling and sparkling at me, his mouth in a little curve that was gentle and... I felt like a traitor to myself, or at least several parts of me were traitors. My eager nether parts were trying to come to attention just imaging Heero sprawled out on the futon in those gray shorts. The other was harder to acknowledge... my heart had never fallen before... at least not for something that was alive. A person shouldn't really count a huge assed Gundam as the love of his life.

I'd poked and prodded at the relationship side of things a couple of times, all with disastrous results. My first crush, a sweeper by the name of Dirk, and yeah, he had looked like a Dirk; blonde, ice blue eyes, and a jaw like a granite monument. Coming on to me in the communal shower was wrong in so many ways, but I'd been fifteen at the time, what the hell had I known about it? All I HAD figured out, at that point, was that I was going to go crazy if I didn't get some relief, and he had been really, really willing to help me out. Didn't get past the hand job before we were discovered. Dirk had been escorted away between my fellow Sweepers and I had never seen him again. The Sweepers had introduced me to magazines then and some practical tips on taking care of... well... myself.

That had gotten me through a war, but, during that time, I had figured out, at least, that I was hot for men, not women. I had kept that a deep dark secret, though. Didn't think my fellow soldiers would be too keen on it, especially in close quarters. By the end of the war, I had managed to 'come out' to Quatre and Trowa, since they had been of the same persuasion, but no one else.

Taking the slide into drugs and drinking, I'd had some chances to experiment again. Being high and drunk, lowers your inhibitions... and your taste. Dry humps and hand jobs behind bars, in bathrooms, and in stranger's rooms hadn't been common, but they had happened. I think I sank my lowest when I gave an on your knees payment to my personal drug dealer when money was short, and let one, older guy stick his hands down my pants and feel me up. Nope, not pretty, not romantic... just sex... just getting off... and just... I shivered. I didn't want to remember any of that stuff. Getting cleaned up had stopped that. The only thing that I could hold up and say, I didn't become that much of a whore, was that I hadn't bent double for anyone. Nobody had actually 'had' Duo Maxwell and... well... I'd never 'had' anyone either. I just couldn't get past that impersonal, still want my shoes and socks on so I can leave right after, mentality. I never ceased feeling like trash afterwards, or like trash had clawed up from the sewer and dumped all over me.

Am I that freakin romantic? I tossed my empty soda can at a pile of scrap and listened to it rattle and roll. Why should I have trouble with what most guys didn't think twice about, what most guys considered 'conquests to be bragged over' ? I didn't want to brag. I wanted to throw up. When it came right down to it, I suppose, I wanted more than just having to change my shorts and being good at excuses to get away from my 'hookups' Maybe it was because of my life, because of the war. I was at a point that most people didn't get to until their thirties. I was ready to settle down, have it all, have... love, a home life, someone to hold and talk to, someone to... I wanted it to mean something, dammit!

I fisted my hair and yanked until it hurt, then I dropped my hands and scowled at nothing. Hilde had gone and done what I had only been dreaming about. She was happy. That was really the root of my anger. Green envy. I wanted that so very badly.

My neighbors finally ended their argument. My thoughts turned to sleep and Heero again. What did I expect? Was I just after him because I was feeling that sorry for myself, that desperate? He had dropped in on me and I had thought he was my enemy. He had proved to be a best friend instead... at least, as far as I knew. I wasn't going to abandon my suspicious nature any time soon.

When I looked at Heero, I saw what could be, well, if I squinted very hard and ignored all the obstacles to that fantasy. I had the feeling it was clouding my better judgment, maybe making me see things in Heero that weren't really there. I wanted to paint a picture of a Heero Yuy who had been secretly wanting me all this time. Reality was, he'd been after Relena Peacecraft.

Maybe we shared an interest in men, but it seemed Heero could switch tracks too. That made my stomach turn. Nothing against bisexuals, but I really didn't want Heero to be one, That really screwed with the fantasy, made his interest in me even more unlikely.

Look at the facts, I told myself. You are two worlds apart. Maybe he thinks you're cute... no, hot... or ... something, but, even if it was more than that.... As hard as I struggled, I couldn't see us with a life together. We were too damned different, from too different rungs of the ladder of life, and expecting...

I pulled on my hair again. "Shut up and go to bed, Maxwell," I ordered myself miserably. "Keep your hands, and your wet dreams, to yourself, and forget about Heero Yuy. He's trouble, outta your class, and he's just using you anyway."

I nice hard slap of reality. Good for you, Maxwell, I told myself. I cracked my knuckles. In the morning, I was going to be professional, aloof, pissy, not drooling over Heero. I was going to let him see just how much I didn't trust him, how much his obvious manipulation hadn't worked, how I wasn't falling for his nice guy act, how I...

"Shit! Who am I kidding?"

I scowled at the point where I imagined Heero sleeping, as if I could glare through walls. Deliberately , I sat down and propped myself up on the post supporting the porch. Curling up and wrapping my arms around my legs, I slept like I had spent my youth sleeping, where ever I could. Maybe a night of being miserable would convince my traitor parts to conform with my bitter, doesn't fall for anyone and their crap, street sense. I couldn't help thinking though, as I drifted of to sleep with a nail head sticking in my gut from the post, that, if Heero had just shown up on my porch without all the Preventer baggage, then there wouldn't have been any reason not to fall for him.


	8. Mudding

Lawless Hearts  
Part 8:Mudding  
by Kracken

 

The change in the air alerted me. It was thick. That's the only way to describe it, but that feeling was so different from how it usually felt, that it woke me up. I started and sat straight, feeling as if I was peeling my body away from my wooden support. My mouth felt like the bottom of a rusted radiator, and my mind was whirling and going, 'what the hell..?' as I tried to figure out what was going on.

Brain engaged. Oh, yeah, I had decided to stop mooning over Yuy and treat him like what he was, a Preventer strong man sent to make sure I did my part of the sting. To celebrate my new resolve, I had treated myself to torture by sleeping outside. That had a two prong purpose, to make me pissy enough to carry out my new resolve and to remind me of my past. It gave some back bone to my pride. It's easy to let someone feed you when you're starving, but when you aren't any longer, you cut the cord and stand on your own again.

I needed to move Yuy out of my shack so that I could get rid of the damned tension that was turning me into knots and I needed to sell some scrap to pay him back what I owed him. Once I was independent again, and not owing him anything, I felt that I could then take back control of where my life was headed. I didn't want to be steered. I didn't want to be forced. I really didn't want to do it because my wanting Heero was making me do whatever he wanted me to. Duo Maxwell was his own man and always would be.

"Clean the other shack and get the parts together to sell," I muttered as I forced my aching body to stand. But not today, I amended as I looked up at the sky and grinned. Today was all mine.

I limped into the shack and heard Heero talking. He yawned around some words and sounded as if he had just got up, his voice soft and mussy. I stopped just outside the bedroom door and listened.

"Okay, Chang," Heero groused irritably, "but we are not going to rush this operation. We need to integrate the new material in slowly, build up the business, and then put out feelers when we get ready to sell the contraband. We can't look like we know what we're doing. We are supposed to be poor scrap dealers who had something big land in their lap. That will bring our target in like a shark to blood in the water. He'll want to take advantage of us." A pause.... "What? Oh, he's been cooperating. You were completely wrong about him, Chang... No, I don't expect any trouble at all. I'll check in with you tomorrow."

I walked in then, stretching, and said, as I bent to the cupboard and fished out some breakfast packs and coffee containers, "Was that Mr. Stick Up the Butt?"

"Hn," Heero replied noncommittally and then, "I've been working long hours. I'm sorry that I fell asleep last night.

I brought the coffee and the meal packs over to him, plopped down cross legged on the futon, and snapped the head tabs. The food sat between us as they heated up. I asked, trying not to look at how handsome he was with his hair all on end from sleep and his face open and still waking up, "Do you have your palm computer on you?"

Heero sat still and I could sense him deciding whether I could be trusted with it or not.

"You don't have to give me the password," I reassured him, "Just log in and hand it to me."

Heero reached down to his bag, then, and took it out. One finger hit buttons in succession, and then he handed it to me. I took it and looked it over. It was much more sophisticated than I was used to, but I wasn't doing anything that complicated. I made a simple spreadsheet with a calculator, added some items, and then handed the computer back to Heero. He looked down at the screen curiously.

"That's my tab," I told him firmly. "When we sell that scrap out there, I'm paying you back every credit."

He could have argued, said it was allright and that I didn't owe him, but he didn't. He knew I was that set on it, I could tell by his almost exasperated sigh as he put his computer away again. He said, instead, as our meal packs beeped to announce that they were hot now, "Good morning."

I grinned and replied with a chuckle, "Good morning," before I could stop myself. Okay, I was supposed to be hard edged, pissy Duo this morning. Well, I guess there was nothing wrong with being polite.

We ate and drank our coffee in silence. Heero hadn't eaten the night before so he was doubly hungry. I watched him almost vacuum his breakfast up and drink two containers of coffee. I ate my meal more slowly and then said with a snort, "I'm the one that was starving, Yuy."

Heero looked embarrassed as he stood up and began gathering up the empties. "I have a high metabolism," he explained, but then he looked at me as he put the trash into a bin by the refrigerator. "Maybe you should eat more as well? Should I heat you up another pack?"

I grimaced. "I've never been keen on breakfast. I'll make it up later, don't worry."

Heero picked up his meal pack from the night before and shelved it. As long as it wasn't open it could be reheated. Gotta love efficient technology, especially when you were in a hand to mouth existence. It stopped a lot of waste.

"We should get an early start on those parts," Heero said as he began pulling on jeans.

I kept my eyes on my coffee container, watching the steam lazily float out. Yep, the weather had definitely changed. "Was Wu Fei riding you?" I wondered with a snort.

There was a long silence and then Heero recovered and said, "What?"

I went over my words and almost choked on my coffee. I swallowed the hot liquid and then snickered, "Goddam, you have a dirty mind, Yuy! I meant, did he want you to get on with the sting?"

Heero did a pretty good imitation of a fish. It was really nice having him flounder for once. He replied, "Yes, he... he wanted to know if you were giving me any trouble."

That was honest. So was I. "This is my day off, so I suppose I AM going to be trouble."

Heero frowned. "Day off?"

I nodded as I finished my coffee. God! it felt good to have my stomach full and my body not screaming at me that it was starving to death. It made me smile as I reached under the bed and pulled out the wooden box that had my clothes in it. I rummaged around inside it and found a very large shirt with a black scythe done crudely on the back. Okay, so I wasn't an artist. I put it on and then pulled out a pair of jeans without knees and some stains splattered across it, dark brown. I took out a spare shirt with the same design as mine and wadded it up in my hand.

"Heero, the weather is pretty damned constant here," I explained to him. "It's hot, hot, hot, a little hot, freezing freakin cold, usually only on Christmas, and rainy. Rainy is so rare that, when it happens, we all call a truce and take the day off for some fun."

Heero moved the curtain and looked dubiously outside. "I don't see any-"

"You feel it, when it's about to," I told him. "It takes time for moisture to collect enough to rain. By the time I get out to the 'field' it'll start."

Heero was really frowning now. "But, what are you going to do... it's very important that we make a sale soon, Duo. Taking time off is..."

"Irresponsible?" I laughed outright. "So what? Once in awhile, Heero, you gotta say, what the hell and go have some fun! I'll see you tonight."

Heero wasn't giving up that easy. Putting on his shoes, he then dragged on a tank top as he followed me out of the shack. I went to a little shed at the side of my shack and opened the door. There she was, Mudhopper, my pride and joy. Okay, so it didn't look like anything but a glorified lawn mower, but that baby could plow through anything. It needed to for what I had in mind.

"Maxwell!" My neighbor was perched on top of the scrap part of the wall and pointing a finger at me. "Get your ass down to the 'field' so I can plow it ten feet under!"

"You and what fucking army?!" I shot back and then ignored him as I caressed the nicked and battered frame of my Mudhopper. My hand paused and then it trembled a bit, pride stung, as I had to ask, "Can you add two cases of beer to my tab, Heero-buddy?"

"What?" I was lanky and Heero was wiry, but I had the bigger shoulders, the ones he had to look around as he said, "Maybe if you explained..."

"We have a game, that's played in the mud," I told him as I popped the clutch and began dragging Mudhopper out of it's shed. Heero lent a hand and we soon had my baby out in the sunshine. God, it was ugly, but I loved every nut and bolt of her. Squat, chunky tires on struts and reinforced shocks, a padded front and back bumper, a black paint job that was flaking from dents and scratches; battle scars. "It's dangerous, intense, probably illegal in every way, but fun as hell."

I had my spare shirt draped across the leather wrapped handlebars. Heero picked it up and fingered it. "Who is this for?"

I couldn't read his mood. All of his attention was on that shirt. "Well," I told him, rubbing the back of my neck. "That's where the beer comes in. One is the entrance fee and the other is to bribe someone to be my second. Last year... well, he sure as hell didn't work out."

"Why not?" Heero asked.

I cleared my throat as I bent to check the engine. "Well, he had his hands on my ass more than on keeping the engine running."

"That man, at the market?" Heero guessed and he really seemed angry.

"Yeah, him," I muttered and dropped the subject. "So, you be Mr. Responsible and start on the parts, and I'll go have some fun in the mud." I gave Heero a dismissive wave as I opened a panel and checked a filter. "Have a nice day."

A hand reached out and took the shirt. "You said this could be dangerous?"

I frowned. "Well, a bunch of drunk guys on a collection of slapped together vehicles, sloshing and sliding in mud consisting of scrap yard refuse, trying to disable each other and reach a finish line.... yeah, pretty damned dangerous."

A tank top landed near my feet. I looked up and saw Heero shrugging into my spare 'team' shirt. He looked down at me intensely. "This sting hinges on your part in it. I can't allow you to be compromised. Since I don't have a weapon to forcefully detain you, I'll have to go along and keep you safe."

"Can't resist, can you?" I snickered at him. "The call of testosterone and machinery!"

Heero smirked and didn't reply. He wasn't going to admit to anything. He did ask, "Have you ever won this contest?"

It was hard to say, "No, never, but I've come close."

Heero looked incredulous. "You're a Gundam Pilot..."

I scowled. "Most of it doesn't have anything to do with skill, Heero, it's more like dumb luck and I've never had much of that."

I was doing it again, forgetting that this man next to me, looking so friendly and so willing to help me, was doing most of it because he had a damned job to do. I almost told him to forget it, told him to stay and work, but... one more day, just one, to let loose and just be two guys having fun.... I could do that, right? It was my day off, after all. Tomorrow, I could be pissy, hard nosed Duo, who didn't fall for stinking Preventer charm techniques.

"Get ready to get absolutely filthy, Heero, my man!" I crowed and cranked the engine on Mudhopper as the rain began falling.

It doesn't flood on L2. There are drains to recollect the precious water, filter it, ozonate it, and send it back to tanks. Sure the dirt got sloshy and hard to navigate, but nothing bigger than a puddle ever formed. That was where some of the 'illegal' came in. To prepare the field for the contest, the drains were blocked and the water was mixed with the mud.

As I jumped on the padded seat of Mudhopper, and Heero straddled the engine casing on the back, I said, "Now, I know you're a cop, Heero, but, the fun part of this is going to end real quick if you start arresting people!"

I had to shout over the roar of the engine. Heero frowned, but then he answered, "I'm not an L2 patrol officer. I'm special forces brought in for a special assignment. I'll consider it out of my jurisdiction!"

I knew what that meant. If he saw it get real ugly, he was going to do his duty, but just dirty fun wasn't going to be illegal today in his book. I grinned in relief and threw Mudhopper into high gear. The wheels slung mud and the little machine rocketed forward. Time in the storage shed hadn't messed with her performance.

Once out of the yard, I turned us towards a break in the lots, a place where it was so rough and uneven that no one had managed to perch on it and stack scrap. That's saying a lot. Scrap men are tough and stubborn. They didn't admit defeat easily.

I took Mudhopper along the outskirts, the big wheels taking the uneven ground easily. I could see men raking in the water as the rain poured down, mixing and preparing the field. It sent a thrill through me, but it also made me think, as I pulled over to a vendor just setting up, whether I had the strength for it. I bought my two cases of beer, Heero paid for it, and I glared at him until he entered it into his computer. While I waited, I gave myself a mental once over.

Times had been rough, meals few and far between. I had managed to get by, but now I knew my reserves were pretty damned depleted. In a physical contest like this, I had to wonder if I had enough energy to get through it.

I plopped down my 'entrance fee' on the table where the judges were already arguing with each other and popping open containers to guzzle. They just nodded and gave me an irritated wave of recognition that was a 'get lost' gesture as well as they went back to their arguing and drinking. Yeah, I was tough and stubborn, too, and didn't admit defeat easily. I guess I would find out whether I had what it took during the contest and not before.

Heero wasn't that slow. He was giving me looks. Looks I ignored as we climbed back onto Mudhopper and I drove us to my bench. Maybe he hadn't thought the field was going to be that tough. It wasn't just slogging through mud, it was an inclined field of buried garbage and mud.

My bench was just that, a slab of plastic material just like the long line of them that bordered the field. Most people had one staked out and used it year after year. It was a safe zone for our stuff and no one stole what you left there. Tools, beer, computers, etc. were off limits as salvage until the contest was over. My bench was distinct in that I had carved my name crudely on the top of it.

I unloaded my tools and a spare power rod from the side compartment on Mudhopper, and added it to the beer on the bench. Mudhopper continued to roar until I cranked it down and then turned it off completely. I flipped open her 'skirt' and began making sure all the seals were tight and mud from our trip there hadn't found a way inside.

Heero watched for long minutes and then he crouched by my side. He didn't ask if I had made Mudhopper. It was obvious from the way she was made of every spare part under the sun. Instead, he asked, "What's the second case of beer for if you don't need to bribe a second?"

"That's 'pay', not bribe," I snorted as I adjusted a seal and wiped out the dirt with my scarf. "I need the second case for the celebration. I don't drink, but it's nice to hand them around to people who do." I grimaced. "Any other day, those guys down there, " I motioned to the line of people tweaking their machines, "would cut my business legs out from under me any way they could, but, today, we're best pals and all that. "

I felt my braid gathered up and pulled behind my back. I looked sideways at Heero. It made me shiver. Nobody touched my hair. It was so much into my personal space that I couldn't help a nervous twitch away from him. His hand pulled back.

"I'm sorry," Heero said quickly and I felt like a dumbass, like some stupid girl, especially when he pointed out, "Don't you tie it up, secure it somehow, when you're working with machinery?"

"Yeah," I grunted, remembering how I had learned the hard way to do just that. Nothing makes you religious about that sort of thing than having your braid wrapped up in a churning part. I'd been lucky enough to be near the off switch, though, and I'd saved myself from having braid and scalp removed forcefully. I tapped Mudhopper with my wrench. "Nothing's moving yet." I pointed out.

It was Heero's turn to look stupid and he nodded once and looked away as if checking out our competition. I'm a goddam ex Gundam pilot. Did he think I'd lost all of my brains after the war? Thinking about my business, I winced inwardly. Maybe he did have reason to doubt me.

The rain was soaking us. No one cared. Once or twice, I leaned back and just let it splatter over my upturned face. God, I loved it! It was a temptation to chuck the entire contest and just go sit somewhere and enjoy it while it lasted. My addiction to adrenalin and competition, the need to get one up on my neighbors at least in this, was too strong though.

The rain let up, turned to a light drizzle, and the signal to get to the start up was given with a loud siren blast.

I looked at Heero as I tucked my braid down the back of my shirt and into my jeans. It tickled my ass, but it was safe from harm. "Rule number one," I told him, "This machine can flip over. It's damned heavy and nothing can stop it from crushing you if it lands on top of you. Shove off if there's trouble. Number two, this is not soft mud. It's full of crap and runoff from all the yards. There's probably stuff buried down there that nobody knows about. Toxic might be the last thing you have to worry about. What I'm saying is, don't fall into it unless you have to. It's better to ride out a bad moment and get banged hard then bail into the mud, okay?"

I closed up Mudhopper and tossed my wrench onto the pile of tools on the bench. "Ready? " I asked. "I gets real rough out there, Heero. You have to be my defense while I steer and get us where we're going."

"We need to get the starting line," Heero said firmly and gave me a fierce smile. He was feeling the rush of adrenaline too. God, we were soo nuts! I guess that's why they'd made us pilots in the first place at fifteen.

"Hey, Maxwell!" A hand squeezed my ass and gave it a broad palmed knead . "You're not giving me a chance this year?" It was shitface from the market. I remembered last year acutely and it gave power to my swing as I turned and cold cocked him. He landed and slid in the mud before I realized that Heero had punched him not a second after me. The man was out for the count.

A medic ran up, full of mud already from the knees down. He didn't ask 'why?' fights were as numerous as the raindrops during mudding day. Instead, he checked the man's pupils, grunted, and then jammed a cushion under the man's head. "He'll be okay."

"Pity," Heero growled.

I was rubbing my sore knuckles. I slid a look at Heero, seeing just how angry he was, and wondered at it. I bristled to cover my uncertainty. "I can handle a guy who cops a feel, Heero, you didn't have to-"

Heero scowled. "Yes, I did. He deserved it," Heero retorted. "Let's get to the line."

"Yes, sir!" I snorted, almost angry, almost embarrassed, and really unsure of what the score was between Heero and me. It wasn't something I needed right then. I needed to be focused on the race.

I fired up Mudhopper's engine again. It purred, loudly, like a damned tiger. I loved her. We climbed on and I took her through the mud and she climbed up to the top of the field. Everyone else was already there. I endured the ribbing.

"Piece of crap not running, Maxwell?"

"Want us to tow you behind us?"

"Scared of the big hill, Maxwell?"

"This your new ass grabber? You're supposed to have a second 'mechanic', you know?"

"Why don't you retire that load of crap and get a real machine, Maxwell!"

I ignored them and concentrated on positioning my wheels for the start. Heero was finding the best way to hold on and was trying several moves to test Mudhopper's stability. "She'll stay upright," I reassured him, "As long as nobody slams her from underneath." Unlikely possibility? Not really if you could see the course. There were a lot of opportunities for someone to come up while you were going down.

 

Heero asked a question a cop would ask, or a man on a mission. "Has anyone died in these races?"

I grinned. "Of course! Now hold on, dammit!" I shouted back and opened Mudhopper up as the start siren sounded.


	9. Falling Under

Lawless Hearts  
Part 9:Falling Under  
by Kracken

 

The finish line was a good distance. That distance doubled when you considered all the big machines, cursing and shoving men, and the dangerous terrain. The newbies of course, went down in the mud so fast it was as if they'd dumped themselves over. I was treated to a view of one of their machines, a rotating, deadly, hunk of metal, as it sailed past my bumper and plowed into two other machines. They went down and my left side was free to maneuver in.

You didn't just run for the finish. Nobody would let you do it, for one thing. That was 'asking for it'. Instead, you had to turn to your opponents and make sure they didn't make it either. There have been a few 'last man standing' contests where no one actually finished the race.

We kicked, we shoved, and we rammed each other. Bone and muscle took a harsh beating as we churned the mud under our wheels. That mud splattered everywhere and tossed up its secrets in weird, mud covered chunks that had a tendency to fly every which way. I avoided them, weaving and ducking as I steered, while Heero gave our opponents as good as we got.

I have to give it to him, Heero did damned good for a first timer. He stayed on, which was most of the battle, and he was a match for anyone that came for us. I was actually getting cocky, thinking that we might have a chance. I'd never had one before. It takes a certain amount of ruthlessness to win. I didn't have it, didn't really want to have it either. I was in it for the fun. It would have been nice to win, but, oh, well....

A kick to the jaw made my head almost spin around. I saw lights and sagged over the handlebars as Heero made a sound that alerted me that someone was about to get turned into paste. I groped backwards, even as I dodged another booted kick, and clutched at Heero's shirt. "Okay!" I assured him as I forced myself to straighten and swerve from my attacker. My head throbbed and one eye seemed covered in a haze. I blinked rapidly and felt the swelling there. God, it hurt!

"Duo?!" Heero shouted at me, a question.

"Okay!" I repeated and went back to the business of steering.

I looked back as I heard an engine rev almost in my ear and saw Heero do an incredible stunt. Grabbing onto the back of my seat, he balanced on his hands and kicked out with both feet. It took my lot neighbor down and I crowed in delight, right before Stubbert fell almost under my wheels. I'm not a bastard and I don't kill people just because they piss me off and try to run me out of business. I had one option to avoid him in those close quarters. I popped a wheelie and jerked Mudhopper sideways. It was all reflex. reflex that didn't take into account that Heero was just sitting back down and that there was an upswing of mud covered machine in the path of my maneuver.

We came down hard, mud and metal twisting and heaving, and then we suddenly popped up again like a spring from the force of our landing. We started going over backwards. I didn't have time for 'Oh, shit!'. I did have time for 'Fuck!' and the sure knowledge that we were about to get crushed by Mudhopper.

Arms went around my waist and yanked me backwards off of Mudhopper. As we hit the mud, I was dimly aware of Heero holding me against his chest as he kicked upwards. Stupid, useless... A man wasn't strong enough to stop that kind of weight and force. It hit hard and we were both driven under. I felt a numb pain. Sounds weird, but that's what it was. I guess I was knocked out before it could really sink in that I was hurt, that metal had slammed into soft tissue, that Duo Maxwell was probably crushed beyond what a medic could patch together. At least dying didn't suck as much as I thought it would.

Waking up sucked royally though. I came to with the medic, Heero, and Stubbert dragging me out of the mud. Between them, they carried me to the sidelines. My skin felt like I had been attacked by cut glass and rusty nails, my mouth was full of caustic tasting mud, and breathing was a collection of wheezes forced on my abused diaphragm. I think the handlebars had tried to make shishkabob out of it.

'You better not die, Maxwell!" Stubbert snarled. "I still have to run you out of business!"

"F-f-f-fuck y-you!" I wheezed and spat out dirt in his general direction.

The man laughed. I don't remember ever hearing that sound come out of that jackass before. Maybe he just hadn't wanted the guilt on his mind; Duo Maxwell, hated competition, saving his damned life at the cost of his own. Our fellow scrap men would never have let him forget it.

I reached out and gripped Heero's arm, pulling him in close. He wiped at my face with rags the medic was handing him while that man doused my wounds with stinging antiseptic. Heero cleared my one eye of a clot of mud. I blinked at him, still dazed. "Y-You okay?"

"Left leg," he admitted as if it didn't matter. He sounded like a soldier reporting as he continued to clean me up. "A deep cut in my calf. Bruises. A contusion on my left shoulder." That drone to his voice ended abruptly and he asked anxiously, "Are you allright?"

I snorted as I managed to regain my ability to breathe. "Shouldn't be..." I puzzled over his pale, pinched expression. It made me suddenly afraid. I mentally checked myself out. I didn't feel any random pieces of metal sticking in me, didn't feel anything crushed or too bad off, so what the hell...?

"I am allright, aren't I?" I demanded.

The medic made a pissy sound. "You boys go out there and try and kill yourselves, and you're worried now?" He relented as my eyes swiveled to him. I must have looked ready to panic. "You're okay," he assured me gruffly. "You're going to feel it for a few days though. Keep those damned wounds soaking in antiseptic and, first sign of infection, get your ass down to hospital before something has to be amputated for gangrene."

"I bet you get awards for your wonderful bed side manner," I sneered, right before he jabbed a pressure needle against my neck and injected something that burned. "Crap, what the hell was that?"

The medic waved towards the field and the men still battling it out. "You don't want to know what's out there that you need a shot for, okay?" He said to Heero, as he stood up. "Get him home and cleaned up. The race is over for him."

That's what really hurt.

Stubbert stood as well. He glared at Heero. "Need a hand?" He asked in the same tone of voice as, 'Need me to kick your ass?'

"Fuck off, Stubbert!" I growled.

Stubbert snorted and his muddy boot gave me a kick, well, a nudge, to be honest, because Heero put a hand out and stopped him. "Be a smart ass all you want, Maxwell," Stubbert warned, "You earned the right today. Tomorrow, though, we'll see."

He left. It was just Heero and me now and I felt whipped down to my soul. I sighed. I tried to shove muddy bangs out of my face, but I was shaking too badly. "Lost again," I said, pretending to joke. "Didn't want to break my track record."

Heero shook mud from a rag in his hands and then tossed it over his shoulder. It was then that I saw that he was covered in mud too. He had been underneath me after all. I thought about that, thought about how he could have left me and saved himself. Instead, he had deliberately matched his strength against that machine... for me.

"Sorry," I said, not knowing what else to say.

Heero looked down at me, puzzled. "Why?"

"I put you in danger by not being fast enough. Guess... " I paused, feeling ashamed, and then finished lamely, "Guess I'm getting rusty..."

Heero grunted, as if I had said something funny, as he gathered up our things and picked me up bodily. When he slung me into a fireman's carry, I really had to wonder at the man's strength as he ignored his own injuries and easily began walking away from the field and towards my lot.

Heero said at last, as the rain began to slow, "You aren't a soldier any longer."

That said a lot of things and I knew he was right. It was an excuse that I wanted to take and hold close. I didn't want to feel like I didn't measure up just then. Losing on the mud field was bad enough.

I remembered some pride, or at least wanted to win some back. "You can put me down. I can walk."

Heero was struggling to walk, slogging through mud, bowed under my weight. He grunted, "You have a head injury."

"Which gives me one hell of a headache but doesn't effect my legs, Yuy. Put me down!" I tried pushing off from his shoulder, but it was hard to do in my position. I ended up just flopping uselessly.

Okay, I don't like to be embarrassed or to feel that I look like an idiot. I didn't like having everyone see me carried from the field and I didn't like Heero thinking that I needed to be carried. It was a two pronged fork in my ego and it stabbed in deep where my temper was coiled up.

You know, sometimes you're angry and you don't even know it. It hides and grows bigger and bigger, getting more and more wound up, until something, or someone, triggers it. Heero, unfortunately, turned out to be that trigger. Guess I was still mad about the sting operation, about being stripped mentally naked and hung out where everyone could gawk at me, about having my place robbed, about having to take handouts, about losing the damned race. All I know is that, one moment I was hanging over Heero's shoulder as he obstinately refused to put me down, and the next I was tightening my arm around his throat and punching him.

We went down like a sack of bad parts. Heero tried to recover, but instinct was making him try and duck my rain of punches, defend himself, and drop me all at the same time. He landed on the bottom, but that wasn't to my advantage. As the mud splashed upwards and then came down to cover us, he twisted me side ways so that I lost my lock on his throat and he shoved me off.

I was cussing in a long rant, not even really aware of what the hell I was saying. I couldn't get it stopped. My temper was like an erupting volcano. I was blind with it, numb to everything else around us and just reacting. I was grabbing at Heero's shirt, fisting it, pulling him in, not allowing him to get away.

I came back to myself a little when I felt my knuckles stinging. That pain registered very slowly. The next thing I noticed, was that Heero wasn't hitting back. He was deftly deflecting my every blow despite how I was in his face and grabbing at him. I came back completely, when I realized that I was shouting myself hoarse.

"Goddam son of a bitch! You think you can come back into my life? Wanna see how bad Duo Maxwell's doing? Want to see Maxwell running his goddam business into the ground? Want to see how I can't even fucking eat? Badass gundam pilot can't even win a fucking mud contest! You get enough laughs yet? You get enough stuff to take back to the guys at work so you can yuck it up? Bet you're glad you didn't hook up with me after the war. Bet your glad you hooked your goddam life to Relena Bitchcraft! Hilde got a clue and she left too. Who the hell wants to stick around me? You'll be fucking glad to get the hell away from me when this is all over, won't you? Then you won't have to pretend you give a fuck about me anymore for the sake of the mission!"

It was like a vocal purge. I heard my own voice as if it belonged to someone else, some loser who needed a mud foot stuck up his butt for being such a goddam whiner. What was all this crap? I didn't realize just how good I was at bottling things up and putting on a happy face for myself. I had totally convinced myself that everything was a-okay with my life and with Heero. Surprise, surprise...

I stopped when I ran out of breath and just sat next to Heero in the abrasive mud, panting, both hands fisted in the front of his t-shirt. There was blood, I noticed in a daze, blood from my knuckles smearing the shirt and Heero's skin. Heero had definite black eye.

Our eyes met. Mine were as blank as my mind just then, but Heero's... they were worried, full of concern for me. When his broad hand tangled at the back of my neck and grabbed a fist full of braid, I thought for sure I'd read that look wrong and that he was going to deck me. Instead.... Instead, Heero forcefully pulled me down by my hair and locked fierce lips with me. It was a hard, deep kiss, full of mud, some blood from Heero's split lip, and the taste of... testosterone? What ever it was it tasted wild, primal, and I wanted more. I jammed my tongue in and searched his mouth, not caring about what just happened between us, not caring where we were, not... caring... about... anything...

Have you ever done something and had a feeling that it was 'right'? Perfectly 'right'? Absolutely 'right'? Well, I never had before. Tangled with Heero in the mud, trying to swallow his tongue whole, feeling his strong hands gripping me to him as if we were going to wrestle, I had that feeling of 'right' and it was so strong it was blinding, painful, all encompassing, mind blowing, and absolutely terrifying. I wanted to grab him and pull him right into me. I wanted to shove a hand into him and pull out that other half of my damned soul, because, along with that feeling of 'right', I had the strongest feeling that Heero had been keeping that part of me all this time and I had never realized it was missing until just then.

No, I'm not about to wax eloquent and poetic, or whatever they call it. I had gut feelings. I was scared and needy. I wanted to lock lips with that damned man forever. And, at my basest; I really wanted to screw his lights out, right then and there, like I'd never wanted to with anyone else before in my life.

The kiss had to end. Really it did. We pulled away with the sound of suction breaking and just looked at each other. We didn't say anything. We both had the same expression; expectant. We both knew what came next. We helped each other up, ignored the dripping mud, ignored our hurts, and ignored people gawking at us. Very slowly, I put an arm over Heero's shoulder and he slipped one around my waist. We did a mutual support and limp back to my lot.

We were reduced to hushed whispers and I don't know why.

"Get the door."

"Okay."

"Allright?"

"Yes."

"We need to get cleaned up."

"Okay."

We locked the door of my shack by jamming the chair under the knob. We limped to the bedroom and into the bathroom. I turned on the shower, while Heero put out towels, shampoo, soap, and a brush as if we were about to do some sort of important ceremony.

We faced each other again, and we both smiled. Hands began to pull at clothes and we undressed each other. Heero caressed my sides, my bare back, looking at scraps and cuts, checking large bruises. I did the same for him.

I snickered at all the mud on him. He used the edge of his thumb to scrape some away from my eyes and chuckled lightly in return. We shared a long look and then... I reached out and stroked his growing erection. I boldly pulled him into the spray of the shower by it and a hand behind his neck. We locked lips and I searched for that feeling, that wild taste in his mouth again. He cupped my ass with both hands and just held on.

We soaped, we sluiced, and we soaped again. Heero ran a hand down the crack of my ass and 'cleaned off' my balls with gentle, calloused fingers. That faint,'scratching' made my damned toes curl. I kept stroking him, loving that feel of masculine strength and virility. I wanted him, wanted to explore his every taste. I began to kneel, the water pounding down on top of us both.

Heero caught at me, brought me up again, cupped my face and kissed me all over. He shampooed my hair, unbraiding it and patiently getting all the mud out. At one point, he pulled my curtain of wet hair aside and rubbed at me, letting me feel how hard and wanting me he was. He reached in front and palmed my erection. I spread my legs to keep from falling over and just closed my eyes and enjoyed it.

Hands tugged. I turned off the water. We weren't reluctant to leave the shower. Promises were made with smiles and eyes glowing with rising passion. We toweled off. My hair was squeezed out, brushed straight, and dried as well as we could manage, and then we were on our way to the bed.

We didn't get there all at once. I was pressed against a wall and ravaged. I pulled Heero to me and rode his knee, rocking and sliding it against the space between my balls and my entrance. He pulled up my legs and made me straddle him, his erection teasing me, but not daring anything yet. We were still injured. Heero still limped. It faded to the back of our minds, though, and we weren't feeling pain. Endorphines are wonderful for that. Maybe we'd pay for it later, but we weren't caring about it just now.

We crawled onto my narrow bed and sixty nined. I groaned and felt my eyes roll back into my head as Heero sucked my cock into moist heat, his tongue swirling and his hand stroking my length with a tight grip. I returned the favor. Heero's cock was swollen and rising from a nest of black hair. It called to me, to that part of me that had made me different since my birth, that part of me that said, 'I want guys! Oh, God, do I want them!' instead of wanting girls. I eagerly swallowed Heero down and manhandled him with my mouth. I couldn't get enough of him. I gripped his ass and pulled him in, sinking in my fingers as I worked up and down, worshiping that wonderful, rigid, length of....

"God!" Heero exclaimed in a strangled voice and he came so heavy and so hard, I choked. I pulled up and let him slide out of my mouth along with his hot load as I tried to recover.

Heero didn't leave me hanging. Even as he was still gasping from his own orgasm, he was jerking me off, milking me with hard strokes, his hand a tight vise around my erection. When he swallowed me down to my root, I shouted in shock at the sensation of reaching his tonsils, and then came like I had never come before.

Neither of us had the strength for anything after that. I pulled the blanket up over us and we sprawled together. Heero was completely limp and breathing evenly in sleep as I curled against his back and draped an arm over him. I nuzzled his shoulder and then took a sleepy bite, some sort of revenge, or leftover spite, from our fight in the mud. Or, maybe, it was punishment for all my confusion. I was still confused. My mind wanted to figure out what was going to happen when we woke up, so sure that this act, that had seemed so natural and so wonderfully perfect, wouldn't seem so perfect when we were rested and in our right minds again.

I touched Heero's tousled hair and brushed it back from his handsome face. My heart ached. My libido smelled sex and wanted more. My brain did mental gyrations. Bitter, jaded, hard, it wanted to look for the con, the scam, the reason why this was all going to blow up in my face later.

Heero sighed and murmured, some part of him aware of me still. "Duo." It sounded like lust and... love.

Hope peeked out and tried to convince me to believe in it.

I bit Heero again, harder. He grunted and frowned in his sleep. Screw hope. Screw tomorrow. Screw thinking about it being anything other than sex and temporary madness. It was safer that way. I couldn't be disappointed if I thought of it like that.

I kissed the bite and leaned my cheek against it, all of my thinking collapsing at once into a big mental heap. I couldn't do it. I couldn't pretend that what had just happened had been nothing. It had been something, an earth moving, life changing... something. .. All I could hope for, was that Heero felt the same way and that I hadn't just lost my mind.


	10. Scrapman

Lawless Hearts  
Part 10:Scrapman  
by Kracken

 

Get the number of the virgo that stomped my ass. Every muscle and bone hurt. My head was pounding. I could feel deep cuts, some abrasions, and definitely things sticking in me here and there. My stomach was trying to gnaw itself out of my gut to get itself something to eat, and... I opened my eyes and confirmed what my nose was telling me. My face was buried in someone's armpit... Heero Yuy's armpit to be exact. We may have taken a shower earlier, but the man could stand another...

I sat up, stifling a groan, and eyed my bed partner. He looked on the edge of waking up, his face settling into a slight frown and his body, sprawled out half underneath me and taking up most of the room, beginning to shift. A had seconds to figure out what attitude I was going to cop, what face I was going to show this man when he opened his eyes, and what I wanted him to think that I thought about us 'doing it'.

I was off the bed like a scalded cat, and busying myself getting some pants, on before those blue eyes opened. When I heard him sit up and make noises of pain, I was handing him hot coffee and pulling heat tabs on some meals. Keep moving, I thought, so I could avoid that moment, the one where two people figured out if things were 'hearts and sunshine' or 'where's my shoes so I can get the hell out of here?' I'd always been the one thinking the last line up until now. It was hard waiting for someone else to choose a or b.

Heero sipped his coffee and I felt him looking at me. I opened my meal and started eating, burning my tongue a little, but too hungry to stop and too chicken shit to give Heero an opening.

Heero started eating as well. The first pack disappeared quickly, but he slowly began eating two more. That was going to keep him busy, I thought as I trashed mine, and went to pull on a shirt. I paused to brush my teeth and clean the last of the mud from where we had missed in the shower earlier. I was busily scrubbing a spot hard, just under my ear, when arms slid around me from behind and held me gently. Heero's presence was warm and solid as he breathed against my neck, "Are you all right?"

I shivered. I didn't want to turn around. I put down the rag and blinked down at the sink. There was some toothpaste and spit there. I turned on the water and listened to the pipes groan as I rinsed the cracked bowl of the sink clean. "I... I don't know what to think. It was all kind of... sudden." Yeah, so, there it is Yuy, I thought bitterly, all laid out. I'm scared, dammit, now go ahead and fucking laugh at me.

Heero's arms gave me a brief hug and then he was backing off, giving me just what I needed right then, space. He said, as I sneaked a look at his serious face in the medicine cabinet mirror, "I never thought about anything but the missions during the war. Afterwards, I had a lot of time to remember you, to think about you. I've always felt that I missed something important, a friendship with you at the least. When I saw you again, in that truck full of contraband gyros, I felt... It wasn't friendship I was feeling... and it wasn't... sex... I..." Heero looked away and shrugged and I realized that he was as on edge and as unsure as I was. He hadn't planned this, but, like me, he had wanted it.

We both didn't know where to go from here; how this tremendous thing was going to fit into our lives. It was like an elephant trying to squeeze into a little box. That was how we were both feeling, I think, that it was all too big and too confusing. The elephant either needed to lose some weight or become a contortionist, because, just then, he WASN'T fitting.

"Guess I didn't think about much during the war either," I replied when he didn't come out with anything else. Liar, I called myself and, you know, he was probably saying the same thing to himself. Come on! Fifteen, gay, and in close quarters, sure as shit we were thinking about each other... though to be clear, a relationship wouldn't have been a blip on the radar screen back then. We 'd been too young and too dedicated to dying for the cause.

I did a typical guy thing. Something bugs you, you sidestep it until it grabs you and throws you down. Emotions, touchy feely moments, declarations of... whatever... I just wasn't ready for that. I knew what I was feeling. I knew how much I wanted that guy with the messed up hair and the saggy shorts.

Saggy shorts... I eyed them. They were mine. There's something about some other guy wearing your shorts, maybe for straight guys it would be gross, but for me.... it was a damned turn on. It just made the 'I don't know what the hell to do about this' hunkering Duo psyche whimper.

"We have some daylight left," I said. It sounded like someone else. My voice was all edgy and weird. "Let's see if we can't find some more parts and get them together."

Heero didn't look hurt, he looked relieved. Yeah, a guy thing. Let's pretend nothing happened until we get a better handle on it. "Sounds good," he replied with the same false, weird voice, the neutral, no comment one. "I'll finish eating and get dressed."

Heero suddenly frowned and I tensed as he touched my shoulder. There was a sharp sting and then he was looking at a sliver of metal covered in my blood. It was small, not much, but he was already reaching for my tweezers.

"We should take care of this first," Heero grunted and, by the time he was done pulling crap out of me and patching me up, and I was done doing the same for him, we'd fallen back on the buddy thing. Well, we were way past agent and scrap man stoolie, so, yeah, just buddies helping each other out. Nothing to get excited about.

"Are you going to be okay working?" Heero asked, worried.

I replied with a shrug, "Doesn't matter if I am or not, right? The business has to make some money now, so we have to work, even if we're banged up." Okay, bad choice of words. I heard Heero snort, but I didn't wait for his reply as I grabbed my boots and made my escape, face so hot I could have warmed up my coffee on it.

I spent some time outside, putting everything onto a piece of dirt that wasn't so muddy. The pumps were already droning, drawing the water back into the cisterns for filtering and cleaning. There were still puddles, low spots, and dips in scrap that kept the water back, though, and I had to pick my way around them as I searched for parts that would, hopefully, make a whole machine that I could sell. Everything was damned unstable, scrap tumbling and sliding down from their piles, some weighing more than me.

"Is someone going to bring your machine back here?" Heero asked as he joined me. He was dressed in jeans now and a tank top. I looked away when I saw the bites on the back of his shoulder as he bent to pick through the things I had organized on the ground. Nope, still not ready to cope with 'us'.

"Once the water is pumped away from the field," I told him, "I have to take the claw and go drag Mudhopper out. I'm pretty sure she's not going anywhere on her own power now."

"Too bad," Heero said absently, "I think your machine was superior to anything out there. Together, we could have won."

I snarled, hating that he had managed to stab me when I least expected it, "Well, I rate a man's goddam life ahead of winning a stupid mud contest!"

"Ahead of your own, too," Heero replied, unruffled by my temper. "You could have been crushed."

"Yeah, well..." I shrugged, deflated. "I didn't have time to think about that."

Heero gave me a keen look and then said, as he headed for a particular scrap heap, "I think you did."

I stared after him as he began to climb for a part. "Watch out!" I shouted at him. "It's full of water and unstable!" I saw him nod and continue to climb. He looked so strong and confident, muscles sliding under skin, handsome face frowning in concentration. It made me think about earlier, but not about sex.

I SHOULD have been thinking about sex, about how good Heero had tasted, felt, smelled... how we had come together and 'done it' like... like we'd been doing it forever. Yeah, that easy and familiar. Instead, I thought, 'If you're right, then I was ready to kill you too to save that son of a bitch next door. What did that say, Heero Yuy?' It disturbed me and I found myself going over the event in my mind, again and again, as I tried to remember it perfectly, as I tried to remember if I really had thought it through.

We gathered our parts and I examined them when we managed to get enough together to make something. Unfortunately, the reject pile grew faster than the 'we can sell this' pile. I felt a knot growing in my stomach, getting bigger and bigger every time I heard the clatter and clunk of yet another part landing in the scrap pile. Every reject, after all, was another nail in the coffin of my business.

Bad fuel rods, mostly. Too much rust. Deposits gumming up the works. Burn outs. Bad points. Bad gyros. Bad internal generators. Nothing we had lying around, nothing that I'd been able to afford in some time. Guess that was why I'd never bothered putting them together in the first place. That phenomenal memory of mine had already figured out what Hero was just now realizing. It was all junk, plain and simple.

I crouched, hands lax between my knees and head bowed. I didn't even care that my braid had coiled up in a puddle. It just didn't matter. I could still hear Heero scrambling for parts, not willing to give up yet, not like I had. Thanks, I thought, for giving me a nice afternoon, anyway, before... this.

Then I heard it, a familiar engine chugging and back firing. It was almost covered up by the air scrubbers as they descended and began sucking the thick humidity out of the air as they cleaned. I was up and running, ignoring Heero's shout of surprise, ignoring aches and pains and pulled muscles, ignoring the shooting, fierce pain that felt as if it were ripping my head open, as I thrust my way through the back gate of the lot and charged full tilt down the muddy alley.

The driver of the panel truck slammed on his brakes as I jumped onto the hood, scrambled over to the driver's window, and hung on like a leach while I shouted over the sound of the scrubbers at him, "Micky! Micky! Micky! I am soooo glad to see you! How ya been? How's the kids? How's the ball and chain? Well, enough catching up, you can pull right into my lot and we'll get down to business."

"Get off, Maxwell!" the man shouted back in a bored, irritated voice. He didn't even look at me. "Everyone knows you got 'nothing."

"And everyone knows you don't either," I shot back angrily. When he tried to put the truck in gear and shove me off, I reached in and took his keys. The truck rumbled to a stop, but not before one last backfire.

"I'm calling the cops," Micky warned, still not looking at me, jaw working.

"Yeah, so they can arrest you?" I wondered. "You do still owe Wilks for a pile of rusted, water logged engines, don't you?"

"You don't have any cash," Micky sneered, finally glaring at me. He looked like a ferret; overbite, small, pointed nose, beady eyes, and a thatch of hair. He had the disposition of one too. He'd eat his own for a few credits.

"I have a new partner with some better business savvy than me," I told him, not having to shout now as the scrubbers finished their job and retracted. "You sell to me and you have a good chance of making some credits."

"Look, Maxwell," Micky said derisively. "Telling me your new fuck is running things isn't going to make me trust you enough to unload my stuff."

I reached in and grabbed a handful of his dirty shirt. "Who said that?"

"What?" he retorted.

"That he's-"

"Didn't, just guessed," Micky sneered as he shoved my hand off.

I looked around and saw my competition hanging near their gates. They weren't coming towards us and they weren't going to try and make Micky better offers. That told me all I needed to know. I had him. I grinned. "I'm all you got, Micky. In fact. I bet you were driving to my lot already, am I right?"

Micky turned a shade of purple that made me worry about his blood pressure. A vein actually throbbed in his forehead. He looked down at his steering wheel, ran his hands over the cracked plastic, and then glared at me again. "65% or you get nothing."

"40%," I countered instantly.

"60%," Frank snarled.

"45%," I countered again.

Micky snatched his keys from me and started his engine. He made as if to back up his truck.

"50%," I conceded.

Micky paused. His jaw worked again, and then he grunted as he looked through his windshield, "That your new partner?"

I glanced to where he was looking and saw Heero standing by the front of the truck in a way that made me think that he was ready to jump in and make hash out of Micky.

"Yeah, that's him," I replied with a grin.

Micky studied Heero and then said, "He looks like he has more brains than you. Okay, done deal."

I jumped off then and motioned Heero to follow me as we led the truck back to the lot. Swinging open the big gate, Micky drove the truck inside. Once he was parked, I climbed into the back and had an uncomfortable flashback. It smelled like gasoline, oil, and dirt. I had this image of Heero, all in black, aiming a gun in my face. It was such a different image from the man who climbed into the truck with me and eyed the crates, waiting for me to give directions.

I picked the closest crates and we opened them up. They were filled with junk, some of it doctored so that it wouldn't look like junk to the untrained eye. I picked through it all, catching slivers and cuts from the metal. Finally rejecting the whole lot, I angrily shoved the crates aside with my foot, and started on some more crates. It was more junk.

I ran a hand, that was covered in grime and some of my own blood, through my bangs and wiped at the sweat. Damn, it was hot in the truck. That knot in my stomach returned and tightened up enough to make me feel nauseated.

"Duo?" Heero asked, worried. "I can finish here."

I rolled eyes at him. "You had mudhopper land on you too, so stop trying to be superman, dumbshit."

He ginned at me and helped me with the next crate. Yeah, he could grin, but I was looking as sick as I felt. He could go back to his cushy Preventer job whenever he wanted. I was the one who was going to be left with the ashes and the 'what comes next?'

Finally! I felt relief so profound I had to sit on a crate. Fuel rods with charges, some good parts with only minimal damage, and two engines. For once, Micky had actually been on the up and up and not trying to completely scam someone.... well, me.

"Looks like we're still in business," I told Heero and I was finally grinning too.


	11. Swing of Things

Lawless Hearts  
Part 11:Swing of Things  
by Kracken

 

Heero inventoried the scrap while I insulted and dickered with Micky. When we finally unloaded and I sent him out of my yard, I had this urge to hose the place down. The man was a real piece of work.

"I think we have enough parts for twenty six machines, eleven of them very marketable," Heero said as he squinted at his mini computer screen. I didn't have to look to know that he was doing some price calculations. I reached out and closed the computer.

I said around a yawn, "That's it for today. We can have a good start in the morning."

Heero looked ready to argue, but then he suddenly looked tired too, as if some surge of adrenalin, that had been keeping him going until then, had run out. He nodded and pocketed his computer. I shook my head as we headed back to the shack. Heero asked, "What?"

"You love numbers, don't you?" It was a dig. I'd always thought of him as Mr. Anal Retentive during the war. It just followed that he would be a number geek too.

"Yes," Heero admitted, but didn't offer anything else. I finally looked back at him and caught him staring at nothing, looking pensive.

Good going, Maxwell, I thought, annoyed at myself. I must have hurt Heero's feelings.

We went into the shack and I secured the door by jamming the chair underneath the knob again. I made a mental note to fix that. I was too damned exhausted to worry about it tonight, or about Heero, and, besides, I seemed to have killed his mood anyway.

When we went into the bedroom, we didn't have to be awkward or self conscious. There wasn't any pressure about what came next. We were exhausted, filthy, and starving. The bed was calling to the both of us and sex, I was sure, was the last thing on either of our minds.

I washed and almost fell asleep in the shower. Hair half wet and a pair of damp shorts on, I gave up the bathroom to Heero. While he showered, I sat on the floor and heated up our dinner. I almost pulled the same number he had, falling asleep. When he shook at my shoulder, I blinked blearily at him. Heero was dressed in his loose, cargo pants and no shirt. His brown nipples were staring at me, mouth level as he bent to look me in the face. It was the only erotic thing I thought before he was putting a meal pack in my lap and a fork in my hand.

"Eat and then sleep," Heero said simply as he sat on the futon and began eating as well.

I ate numbly. We were both silent. L2's water pumps still droned on, collecting the rainwater, and the open vents in the floor, were making a slight whooshing sound as air came up out of them from far below ground. That filled the air between us. It didn't cover up that there was a problem; a tension in that human silence.

I suppose, being on the streets most of my young life, I'd learned to be careful of people's moods, to sense them, to pick them up from even faint body clues. People could be damned mean, murderous mean, if you walked across their path at the wrong time. The streets had been full of angry, even crazy, people who had been just waiting for a trigger, an opportunity, an excuse; a young boy in the wrong place at the wrong time. Heero was setting off my alarms. He was as obvious as a big, flashing, red light. Something was pissing him off.

"What?" I finally ground out after I swallowed my last mouthful of food and tossed the meal pack in a perfect arc into the garbage can.

Heero didn't say anything as I crawled up off the floor and onto the bed; just a bundle of aches and pains and weariness. I stretched out on my side, fumbling with the blanket I didn't really need.

I was sinking into, 'don't give a damn,' despite my street sense protesting. I was just too exhausted. I said, with one, last, tremendous, effort, "Out with it."

"I'm not a machine," Heero said and there as anger in his voice.

"Hnh?" I tried to process that while my eyes fell shut. "Didn't say you were," I slurred.

"You said..." Heero paused and then explained, "People used to say that I was... inhuman, because of the way I was trained... When you said... You asked about the numbers... I thought..."

I snorted and yawned hugely. "Not a machine," I managed around it. "Just a.... geek."

"Oh..."

The anger left the room. My street sense 'stood down'. Everything inside of me was in agreement now. We wanted to go into a coma.

"Night, number geek," I mumbled and began falling over the edge of consciousness.

There was a small laugh and then a warm body was settling next to mine. "Good night," a husky voice whispered and then I was lost to sleep.  
_____________________________

A phone was ringing. I winced and put my pillow over my head. A warm body... Heero... stirred beside me. I had time to realize that he was wrapped around me, and that it felt nice, while he retrieved his cell phone from somewhere close by and answered it blearily.

"Yuy."

My cheek was pressed against Heero's chest. Heero's voice vibrated against my ear along with the beat of his heart.

"Hn... We made progress," Heero was saying. "Took in a shipment.... That's being taken care of... He was robbed, he doesn't have any records... You'll have to take my word for it... Personal?" A hand gently caressed my side. "I know how important this case is, Chang, have some confidence in me.... allright... Tomorrow."

The phone was discarded. I heard it bounce on the mattress of the futon. I couldn't pretend to be asleep. Heero's caress had made my toes curl. I didn't have any choice except to face him and... figure out what to do, what to say, now.

I rolled onto my back. It was awkward. We didn't have a lot of room. Heero was on his side, propped up on an elbow, blue eyes looking down at me. He was still half asleep, hair all in his eyes and his expression distant, as if he was still dreaming.

"Hey," I said and then felt stupid.

"Good morning," Heero returned and yawned. His elbow folded under him and he let himself drop back onto the mattress. I had expected some talk... maybe flirting with the edges of the dreaded relationship talk, the 'what the hell is all this and where is it going?' talk. I didn't expect Heero to turn over and give me his back, intending, I thought, to go back to sleep.

"Too early, "Heero muttered.

I strangled a sigh of relief and then smiled as I slid an arm around his waist, pulled him back against me, and head butted his shoulder lightly. Heero, for his part, grunted and clasped my hand where he could reach it. Then he was letting go and falling asleep.

Yeah, we were being intimate; another step closer to there being an 'us', but not a big scary step. It was a little, comfortable, baby step.

The second time we woke up, I gave Heero a squeeze and then let him go, still wanting to avoid that staring into each other's eyes and all of that. I rolled off the bed and pulled on my jeans. As I stamped into my steel toed boots, he was up and going into the bathroom. I heard him pee and wash his hands, and then he was out and heating up breakfast for us. After I finished my turn in the bathroom, we sat shoulder to shoulder on the futon and ate.

"Wu Fei getting impatient?" I wondered around a mouthful.

Heero was quiet, glaring at his food, and then he replied, "Yes."

I snickered. "That's saying a lot without saying anything. Translation, 'Get on the stick, Heero, or we'll come down there and 'help' you get the job done. Am I close?"

"Locked on target," Heero grunted. He changed the subject. "We need to get your records in order as well as rebuilding those parts. Do you have copies filed anywhere?"

I tapped my forehead. "Up here."

Heero didn't look please by that. "I'm not questioning your skill at recall," he assured me, "but everything here is so unorganized. I think we need to make bins and separate all the scrap. We need to find the parts that are never going to be rebuilt and sell the metal."

I shook my head, "There isn't any market here for that, Heero. There's too much of it."

"Then we need to get rid of it in the incinerators," Heero reasoned. "You shouldn't have any scrap in your yard that is useless. Space equals money if we use that space for scrap that has value."

I had this image of neatly categorized scrap in orderly bins. It just didn't seem natural. I was a pack rat for good reason and throwing things away, even useless things, was against everything I'd been taught on the street in my hand to mouth existence. I wanted to protest, but I didn't. He was right and, if he could manage it, I wasn't going to be an idiot and stand in his way.

We finished eating and I tossed on a shirt. I caught Heero looking at me appreciatively. All thoughts of scrap went out the window as I tied on my bandana and picked up my hat. We were going to have sex again, without a doubt. We were two guys, with the hots for each other, with normal libidos. It was all a matter of when and not if.

With our new understanding, sex didn't seem the scary thing that it had been. We were going to do it without all of that soul searching, love talk, and burden of worrying about our romantic future. I found myself hopeful and looking forward to it, though the thought of doing the sixty nine with Heero again had it's own case of awkwardness. It was easy when we were responding to lust and that overwhelming sense of 'we belong together forever', but, in the light of day, it was hard to think of an opening sentence, that wasn't embarrassing and awkward, that would lead to me getting Heero's pants down and my mouth on his... well, if I thought about it now, we weren't going to get anything done.

Heero dressed as well and joined me on the porch, running fingers through his wild hair and then putting on his hat. It was hot again and dry, though not the furnace heat it had been. The pumps had ceased and it was as quiet as it ever got on L2, which wasn't saying much.

"You don't have to do all of this for me," I heard someone say abruptly and realized, with a start, that it was me. My street smarts never took a vacation. It never let go of pessimism or distrust.

Heero reached out and lightly ran fingers down my bare arm. I shivered as he said, "It's not just a case anymore and you know it." and then he was going down the steps and out into the lot, that bit of honesty uncomfortable for the both of us. I felt my heart do something funny. I swore it did a backflip, and a triple somersault, whooping for joy. Shut up! I told it irritably, but I was grinning and couldn't help that as I joined Heero and began working side by side with him.

It was hard, sweaty work. We were covered in dust and rust , and sporting skinned knuckles and burned fingers, as we hunkered over machinery and slowly began to assemble parts and start compressors, fuel rods, and engines. We worked like a well oiled team and, more than once during that long day, I found myself marveling at it and feeling a sense of well being. The box of tools turned into the instruments of mechanical surgeons. We were experts in our field, knowing exactly what had to be done and doing it as if we had four hands and one mind. It really was a beautiful thing, a piece of perfect that I hadn't achieved in a long time.

Heero turned out to be right. We ended up with the exact number of working machines that he had predicted. I saw him smiling, realizing it as well. Yeah, a complete number geek. I couldn't help laughing as I wiped the grime and sweat from my face with my bandana.

"What?" Heero glanced at me as he punched numbers into his computer. He had been inventorying the stack of parts closest to us while we had sat and rested during the day. He finished that up now, but I knew the bigger piles wouldn't be that easy.

"Just thinking about how different we are," I admitted as I sat on the fender of my claw machine. It smelled like old gas and bad oil. "And how alike."

Heero smiled and nodded. "I was thinking about that as well."

My eyebrows climbed to my hairline. "You were?"

"We work so well together," he replied as he finished his entries. "We've always been able to. I was wondering how that could be when our personalities and approach to things can be so different."

"Common goals?" I hazarded and he smiled at me. I ducked my head and hid behind the rim of my hat.

I knew what he was thinking. We worked together so well because of that 'L' word, the one I was thinking deep down, but not getting anywhere near my tongue yet, not by a longshot. He wasn't saying it either and he just dropped the subject rather than test the waters. I know its stupid, but it was just too soon. We hardly knew each other. Common sense said it couldn't happen like that, all in an instant., so we were both willing to think it was just sexual attraction and some friendship right now.... well, at least I was. I wasn't a mind reader, after all. I couldn't know what Heero was thinking with absolute certainty.

Heero was looking out over the yard, maybe making a plan for the next day. The reflectors were dimming towards late afternoon. We still had some time to work, but my mind had already jumping ahead to night time and having Heero alone. I didn't have the same trepidation, especially since I'd been watching his upper body, hardly concealed by his tank top, all day. I had a definite thing for well defined arms and shoulders, Heero had them in spades.

I think I'd been half hard for most of the day, libido at full steam. It brought to mind my total unpreparedness if we should take things a bit further than last time. I'd been living as celibate as a monk for some time, and not buying things like lube and condoms, had been my way of keeping control of my libido. I needed to ask Heero about his health card, too, and wasn't that just the most awkward thing to have to do? Quick hand jobs in toilets, and behind buildings, might get you some STDs, but a full blown encounter could still get you dead. It was hard to start off a conversation with, 'can I see your health card, because I intend to fuck or be fucked by you?' and didn't that bring up another can of worms? Top or bottom? I found myself staring at Heero... wondering...

Heero looked up from his work again and stared back. He blinked and then he asked in concern, "Have I done something wrong?"

I shook myself out of my cloud of testosterone and said, before I could think it through, "I need to borrow some more credit. I need- we need some supplies....."

Heero opened his mouth to say exactly what I knew he would. I cut him off.

"I DON'T take handouts, Yuy!" I retorted to his unspoken offer. "I want you to tally every credit, and I mean, every damned last one."

Heero looked amused and nodded. He made a notation. "Thirty credits enough?"

I fiddled with my bandana and then tied it around my neck. "More than enough."

"I could go myself , while you finish up here," Heero offered. "You'll need to call your contacts."

"That's okay," I said quickly. The last thing I needed was to have to ask Heero to buy sex supplies for me. No guy likes to admit that he hasn't done it regularly. It's a macho thing that would probably never get stamped out of the male psyche.

"It's allright," Heero replied. "I don't mind."

"There's people I need to talk to," I countered. "and I need to check on Mudhopper."

"All the more reason for me to go along and get the supplies," Heero parried. "You can talk and check the machine easier that way."

"But...," I stopped and we faced off. I snickered. I couldn't help it. Heero looked puzzled and then he looked embarrassed when I said, "You want to by condoms and lube too?"

I'd never seen someone turn that deep a red. It went all the way to the tip of Heero's ears. He looked down at his booted toes and replied, "I'm sorry. I..." but then he looked up, startled, as my words finally made sense to him. "You... You were going to buy them too?"

"Yeah." I rubbed the back of my neck. "Look, I'm not saying we're going to need them, but, it's not something I have on hand."

I couldn't bring up the health card now. I really didn't want Heero to think that I was intending to have full blown sex, because I wasn't. I just wanted to be ready... in case I wanted to... later on. That made sense, right?

Heero put away his computer and squared his hat. "Now that our supplies aren't a secret any longer, we should both go together. I'll buy the supplies while you attend to business."

"Uhm... I'd really rather buy everything, Heero. Why don't you stay here and keep doing inventory?" I tried to sound casual, but I was already thinking about what the shop people would think about Heero buying those things. They weren't going to conclude that he was getting ready for someone else. It's one thing for everyone to know that you're gay. It's another for them to see someone actually getting ready to do you. It messed with a whole bunch of masculinity and privacy anxieties I couldn't even explain myself. All I knew was that I would feel better having them think that I was buying the stuff . It was back to the top or bottom issue and, as ridiculous as it sounded, I wanted them all to think I was top. No, there isn't any reasoning with male pride, sometimes.

Heero gave up and nodded. "All right. It's very important we get this inventory done. It does make sense that we both shouldn't take the rest of the day off together."

"Yeah, that's what I thought, " I lied. "and we do need supplies, not just... that stuff." I shrugged and put my hands in my pockets. "Okay, I'll be back in a bit." I started to walk away, but then stopped and looked back at Heero. He needed more from me, I suddenly felt. He was looking pensive.

"Heero..." I rubbed the back of my neck again, that nervous habit carrying me through the awkwardness. "I just want you to know... I'm not sure how all this happened," meaning us, "but, it's good, okay? I just have to go slow. It doesn't mean I don't like it, that I don't want it. Just..."

I couldn't go on, not with those blue eyes of his looking at me so intensely.

"I didn't plan this and I didn't think that it would happen," Heero replied softly, "I did want it too, though. I'm not sure... Maybe after the sting we can figure it out together?"

I grabbed onto that with both hands. "Yeah, you're right. We shouldn't get into it right now...." I mentally kicked myself hard. That had sounded too damned eager. Fuck you suspicious, I don't trust anyone, street sense, I thought and forced out. "I do want to, though, ... after..." I hesitated and then said , "Guess I'll forget about some of the supplies, for now. Why waste credits we don't have when... when we won't be..." I turned away. That's as far as I could go with the verbal 'opening myself up'. I gave him a wave and said gruffly, "I'll be back. Careful on those scrap piles."

"Roger that," Heero grunted behind me and that grunt gave me a lot to think about as I went for supplies. Had it been a sad grunt? A disappointed grunt? An angry grunt?

"God, Maxwell!" I groaned at myself. "It was probably just gas!"

I bought our supplies, talked to some contacts, and checked on Mudhopper. I was pretty certain I could pull the machine out next morning. I stopped myself from climbing over the drying mud to check on her. I knew what I was going to find and it wasn't going to be pretty.

Returning to the lot, I saw that Heero had began sorting things and that our completed machines were now under a tarp and gleaming with new oil. I could see credits when I looked at them and I couldn't help grinning as I entered the shack. Heero was seated on the futon, fingers flying over his little keyboard.

"Everything allright?" he asked me without looking up.

"It was shopping, not a suit battle," I retorted as I put the supplies away.

Arms empty now, I stood and looked at my companion. He was wearing my soft shorts again. He must like them. I wasn't going to argue about that. He looked better in them than I did. Sitting down beside him, I could smell that he had showered and shaved. That aroma of aftershave tickled my nose and my libido. It hit some button, the one that turned off inhibitions, the one that said 'we want you so damned bad, we will not think of anything, especially consequences.' It was doing the thinking, my brain certainly wasn't.

I think it was the pulse on the side of his throat that did it, or maybe those nubby brown nipples of his, or that strong curve of his shoulder, or the way his skin seemed to say, 'I taste wonderful'. It was probably all that talk of lube and condoms and mental musings about top and bottoms. All I know is that I was suddenly wrapping a hand into the hair at the back of Heero's neck and pulling him roughly to me.

My free arm snaked around Heero's strong waist. He wasn't soft. He was hard, like a rock, and it was almost painful pulling him in tight so that I could snag his lips with mine. I ate his mouth, battered it open, stabbed in deep, and pushed him onto his back on the futon at the same time.

Maybe I was rough, because a part of me was resisting, or maybe I was rough because I blamed him for losing control. Either way, he didn't seem to mind. He opened his legs to me and wrapped them around me like a vise as I pressed him down with the length of my body.

It was almost frantic, our sex, both of us confused, out of control, and both wanting it too badly. Holding back the final act was the ultimate in frustration, but we both weren't ready, mentally. Telling that too our bodies was another thing, though. It escalated our frantic motions, made sex seem almost an act of anger. We were angry, after all. We did want to go all the way, but were too stubborn, too hard headed, to damned afraid of what came next to go through with it.

Disengaging slightly, I snagged Heero's waist band and dragged the shorts off of him. His hands unsnapped my jeans and scratched skin as he jerked them down to my knees. When he reached in with a broad hand and grabbed my erection out of my underwear, I almost came right then and there, especially when he gave it a hard stroke. His own erection was swollen, red, and standing proud as I bent and swallowed it whole.

He tasted like... salt, precome, sex, Heero, endorphines, hormones... he tasted 'mine'. That sounds weird, I know, but it was the only way I could describe it. He tasted like he belonged to me and I couldn't get enough of that taste.

We sixty nined, but Heero didn't go for my erection right away. Instead, he licked and kissed me all over. He bit my knee, sucked on it, and I faintly thought about the fact that I was sweaty, if not dirty, there. That seemed to be it's own aphrodisiac to Heero, though. When he buried his face into my crotch and began worshiping; licking and mouthing everything there, I went wild, clutching at him and giving him as good as I got. He humped my mouth and came with a shout. He fisted me and jerked me off to completion while he swallowed and tongued my balls.

We stayed stuck together like that for a long while and then we stirred and sat up. Moving shakily and groaning at strained muscles, bites, and aching bodies, we showered again and then spent the evening eating, sitting close, and going over Heero's inventory. We collectively said nothing about the act, but our shoulders were touching and we sat on the futon... kind of facing each other in a way that was intimate and comforting.

Okay, so we'd taken another baby step... maybe more than a baby step, but, I really didn't mind it at all. We'd come at it on our own terms, after all, and that made all the difference.


	12. Gray

Lawless Hearts  
Part 12:Gray  
by Kracken

 

Getting an elbow to the face and a knee to the gut isn't a good way to wake up. I shouted... well, gasped, actually, around a pulverized diaphragm and, what felt like, a broken nose as Heero rolled over me. The pounding on the door registered next and then my goal wasn't to get air in, but to save my early bird customer from Heero.

Heero was crouched and grappling for a weapon he didn't have as I sat up and untangled myself from the blankets. Heero was still half asleep, eyes blinking myopically and hair a tangle over his face. Dressed only in his underwear, arms waving in large arcs as he tried to orient himself, he finally fell backwards and sat on his ass on the floor. Good, he was awake enough now to remember what year it was and that we weren't in a war any longer.

I skipped the sigh of relief I couldn't manage anyway as the door pounding continued. A faint, "Maxwell!" punctuated it. I held a hand to my stinging, bleeding nose as I dragged on a pair of shorts with my free hand, hopping and staggering as I made my way out of the bedroom and to the front door. I snagged the chair out from underneath the knob and opened it.

My customer was walking away, looking annoyed. "Polk!" I shouted. He turned at my voice and then looked shocked.

"What the hell happened to you, Maxwell?"

"Fell out of bed and then ran into a door," I lied effortlessly. "News at nine. Give me a minute to get dressed and I'll be out with you."

Polk, a heavy set man in overalls, grunted, and then turned his back on me. He didn't leave, though, and that gave me hope.

I went back inside and straight into the bathroom. I picked up a rag and cleaned my face. Heero appeared in the doorway holding my jeans. He still looked half asleep, but as guilty as hell too. "Duo, I'm-"

"Later," I growled as I took my pants, discarded the shorts, and began putting them on. "We have a guaranteed sale out there. Let me handle it. You..." I looked him up and down, "Go the hell back to bed. I remember you as an early riser with a hair trigger during the war. What happened?"

Heero rubbed a hand through his hair and couldn't help a yawn, "Lots of stimulants."

I grunted. I remembered taking some heavy drugs myself to get through some of those tough days. I didn't want to think about it, then, or at anytime, actually. I left the bathroom and fished a shirt off the floor. Dragging it on over my head, I shrugged into it as I looked for my boots. Heero sat on the edge of the futon and pulled the heated tab on some coffee. He cupped it in both hands and sipped cautiously, watching as I found my footwear under his discarded clothes and sat on the floor to put them on.

My nose felt two sizes too big and it was still leaking blood. My stomach throbbed. I was mad. I was tired. I sat, finally, with my booted feet sticking out in front of me and my eyes closed. Get it together, I told myself, I had to be sharp and I couldn't afford to let my temper have free range.

Heero moved. I opened my eyes and saw him getting dressed. As I stood up, he said. "I'll go with you."

Yeah, I know he was feeling very guilty and wanted to apologize. Standing with me out there was his way of atoning, but I could see he was still blinking and trying to wake up. I put a hand in the middle of his chest and pushed. He sat back down, pants half on.

"You clocked me. It was an accident, now forget it," I told him as I headed for the door. "I am an ex-soldier too, remember? I've had my share of flashbacks."

Heero leaned back on the bed, half propped on his elbows in defeat. Even gummed up with sleep, he looked like a damned pinup in a magazine. My brain tormented me with the memory of how he tasted and the feel of his skin under my hands as I went outside and rejoined my customer.

I had put out the call the day before, that I had reworked parts and machines to sell. I had especially asked for this man. When I'd told Heero 'guaranteed sale' I hadn't been exaggerating. It came with a small price, though, and not in credits, but I didn't feel bad for paying it. It w as just part of doing business on L2.

"Glad you could come, Polk!" I called to the man. He had found the parts and was picking through them already, face a study in concentration.

"All warranteed." I told him as I tied my bandana around my neck and stood at his elbow.

"Better be," Polk grumbled.

The game began. We haggled. It took time. He found every flaw, exploited every one of my weaknesses to get the price down. For my part, I pointed out the pros and his weaknesses. He had one, a big, glaring one. It was my hammer to drive home the price that I wanted. He agreed at last and we did the deal.

I was walking a foot above the ground, with a bank account that finally had some credits in it, as I watched my customer load up half the parts with the help of an assistant, and drive off in a cloud of dust.

Go me.

I was having sex with Heero Yuy, my business wasn't getting ready to collapse any longer, I could pay Heero back every credit I owed him, and I was having sex with Heero... Hey, it felt good to repeat it. I was still having trouble believing it.

It went a long way to restore my self worth that I had sold those parts all on my own. I didn't need Heero, or the stinking Preventers, to come in and save me. I didn't need anyone but Duo Maxwell to run things. I'd scored the replacement parts on my own and had sold them on my own... Okay, so Heero had helped me rebuild the machines, but I could have done that too... in time... Well, when it came to restoring an ego, I could skimp on details like that.

I had a feeling, when I went back into the shack, that Heero had been watching through the window. He wasn't when I returned, but he exuded 'pleased', even though he was stretched out in bed and eating breakfast.

Heero's computer was open and next to him, waiting, I guess, for me to come in with the sale. I snagged it and started entering accounts as I sat on the edge of the bed. I made sure the money had transferred, first thing, and then made sure some of it was transferred to Heero's account to pay off my tab. When I saw the zero amount on that tab... I had an emotional moment. I felt stupid, but it was that important to me. I turned away to pull myself together and said, roughly, to cover it, "Polk knows a contact that might pick up the rest of the parts."

Heero took the computer, after I put it down, and went through Polk's record as he chewed and swallowed. I knew what was coming next. I heated up my own breakfast and sat with my back to Heero as I ate, shoulders tensed as I waited for his reaction. I wasn't disappointed.

"Duo, he's not licensed."

"Yeah, I know."

"Selling to him is illegal."

"Not hugely illegal, though, just a misdemeanor," I replied without turning. "He sells legitimate, rebuilt parts, and he pays his bills on time."

"Duo, I am law enforcement. I can't-"

I did turn to him, then, glaring. "Do you remember what I said when I was hauled off to Preventer lockup? I won't do this sting of yours if you're after little guys. Polk's very little. He did some bad things when he was young, like we did, but now he's married, has six kids, a mortgage, and bills to pay. The government won't give him a second chance, though. They won't license him. We were given pardons, special treatment, hero status even. Polk, and people like him, got nothing, Heero. They have to live under the paper radar."

Heero looked troubled. The Heero I knew wouldn't listen to my reasoning, wouldn't back down, and wouldn't sacrifice what was legally right for an individual who needed some social right. I had this feeling that, what we'd built in our short time together, was suddenly as slick as oil and slipping from me. I wanted to grab at it, to stop it from getting away, but I knew there were some things I wasn't willing to compromise on for my own sake. I wasn't going to rat on Polk and I wasn't going to let Heero do it either. If I had to kill the sale, I was prepared to, to save him.

"I wasn't present for the sale," Heero said at last as he continued to eat. "No witnesses, no bill of sale, and no paper trail. A transfer of accounts isn't enough to prosecute. If you can give me a valid reason why parts should disappear and why a man suddenly gives you that many credits...?"

"Damn thieves took them last night," I said, feeling a grin spread across my aching face. "I can't afford to invest in security equipment. It happens a lot. As for the credits, Polk's giving me a business loan."

"Unsecured and without a signed contract?" Heero wondered, as if he really believed it. "That isn't very wise."

I snorted. "We're friends. He knows I'm good for it."

Heero went through his bag and pulled out a small med kit. He found an ice pack, hit the tab, and handed it to me. "Your nose... Is it...?"

I touched it and then pressed the cold pack to it. I didn't like the sensation, but I knew it was good for the swelling. "No, it's not broken." My voice had a weird, nasally, tone to it. "People sleeping with you must really love those wake up calls." I was starting to get angry and I couldn't help a jab of sarcasm. You might forgive someone for hurting you when it was an accident, but you could still be pissed about it. Heero's next words killed that anger dead.

"I've never... I've never slept with anyone before," Heero admitted softly.

I blinked at him, staring at him in shock around the bulk of the ice pack. My brain floundered. I didn't know what to say to that. My image of handsome, assured, Heero with a string of willing lovers, popped like a balloon and nothing but a big, 'huh?' was left in it's place. I tried to recover, tried to reason through my surprise. "Uhm, well, with reflexes like that, it's no shit you don't sleep with anyone else. Killed any previous boyfriends?"

Okay, that was the last thing I had wanted to say. I did my dumb fish routine again. Admitting that much of a relationship... I hadn't been ready for that, wasn't ready for Heero to look so... damned happy. His embarrassed face split into a smile that made my toes curl. A smile like that should be packaged and made into a weapon. It could disable anyone with an ounce of feeling. It kept me from backtracking, from turning it into a crass joke, from WANTING to take it back.

He didn't push it. I could see him trying to control that smile as he stood up, discarded his meal, and dressed. "We should get to work," he said in a way that was just as bad as the smile.

I stood up and felt overwhelmed as I watched him leave the bedroom, picking up his hat on the way out. I now, officially, had a boyfriend. "Damn," I breathed and followed him out into the burning hot morning.

"This stack has a lot of large pieces of scrap, " Heero commented.

I came to stand next to him and we both looked up and up at the tallest stack in my yard. Some pieces were as large as suits and some as small as refrigerators. The sun gleamed on rust, oil, and water standing in nooks and crannies.

Heero pointed to a relatively free space. I didn't have many. "We should move the usable parts there, catalog them, and then have the rest hauled away. "

"Now?" I sounded reluctant, hell, I WAS reluctant. I'd let it go for a long time. Moving scrap that big was dangerous and most of it I had inherited when I bought the yard years ago. My brain had cataloged it as a 'Pandora's box' and forgotten about it. It was damned difficult to sell anything that big, anyway.

Heero gave me a sideways look that was very serious. My 'boyfriend' was gone and replaced with someone I'll call, 'Mr. Mission'. There wasn't anything soft or conceding about him. This guy didn't give a damned about anything except the numbers, the bottom line. This was the guy I had fought a war with. This was the Heero I remembered, only it hadn't been bottom lines he'd wanted back then, but body bags and winning a war.

Heero didn't need to say anything. Just his stance told me everything he was thinking. If I wanted the business to be a success, I had to deal with my inventory. It was up to me, though, his eyes told me. I had the decision.

"Let's get to it," I said with false enthusiasm.

Heero nodded, pleased, and I went to get the claw. Sitting in the ratty cab of the big machine and turning the key, trying to get the old engine to turn over, I really wasn't surprised when it just grumbled, spluttered, and died a choking death. It had been due for a breakdown. They happened almost like clockwork.

I leaned my forehead against the filthy controls and accidentally hit my aching nose. I winced and sat up again. Heero was already opening the engine compartment and looking inside. I mouthed his report, knowing it already.

"Fuel rod, compressor pump, line clog." Heero fiddled. Nothing came of that, of course. He closed the compartment and I looked over the hood of the machine at him. "Lets inventory the stack as much as we can," Heero suggested, "identify the good parts, and then try and fix the claw to move them. That way, if we need to go out for parts, we'll be able to start work after it's fixed."

I guess that made sense, but, I think, it was just a complicated way of saying, 'We're pissed about this, so let's leave it until we stop wanting to beat the engine with a heavy wrench.' I didn't know about Heero, but I sure wanted to.

We had to climb the stack, as much as I didn't want to. We couldn't see everything from the ground. With the claw, we could have picked it apart, but now... "Let me go up," I suggested to Heero, "I'm experienced at this. I'll call down what I find."

"No," Heero softened the 'Mr. Mission' bit, "We'll get done faster if we do it together. We may be able to spot each other if there's trouble."

I doubted that, but I could see that he wasn't going to back down from this. "Okay," was all I said as I began a cautious climb up the scrap.

It was a mountain of very heavy materials. By all rights, it shouldn't move, but rusted spots giving way, greasy surfaces sliding against greasy surfaces, and precariously tilted parts deciding to stop defying the laws of gravity, were all a real possibility. It just rubbed in my lack of organization. Not having sorted it sooner was endangering us both.

Everything was going all right, at first, but I didn't let that lull me into false security. I stayed sharp, stayed cautious; testing each surface before I trusted my full weight on it. I saw that Heero was doing the same. Together, we poked, prodded, reached inside to tug pieces into the light where we could see them, and inventoried each piece we could identify on Heero's computer.

We both sweated and we were both quickly covered in dirt and grease. As we bent over a stubborn piece, heads together, and I tried to move it so that the light touched on identification numbers, Heero suddenly nuzzled the side of my face. I started, but he was already leaning in and seizing a kiss.

Okay, so we're crazy. I ended up almost on my side with Heero leaning into me and the kiss for all he was worth. We forgot about how high up we were, and how very dangerous it was, to indulge in some tongue dancing. I didn't care, didn't think, didn't register anything in the whole wide world except how very hot that kiss was, until someone nearby swore... in Chinese.

Heero and I swiveled eyes, tongues still locked together, and saw Chang Wu Fei standing on a piece of scrap and glaring at us in jeans, a white shirt, and work boots. You understood the term, 'kill someone with a look', when you are given one by Wu Fei. He had it down to an art form; contemptuous, cold, arrogant, and so full of anger that he could strip metal off of Gundanium or strip the flesh from the bones of two men who were doing something he totally disapproved of.

"Yuy!" Wu Fei hissed. "What are you doing? I knew that you couldn't be trusted to execute this sting as soon as I knew that Maxwell was going to be part of it. You have compromised everything by letting this become personal!"

We broke the kiss. I was getting my tongue back in working order and getting ready to let Wu Fei have some choice words in response, when Heero replied, "I'm sorry. I... I didn't know that I would become... involved."

Wu Fei's arrogance went up a hundred notches and he managed to look down his nose at us from two levels of scrap down. "You have compromised your career, your record, by indulging in this, " he motioned harshly at me, "this unnatural attraction. You have endangered-"

"Hey!" I finally broke in. "Unnatural?! What the hell century did you crawl out of?!"

Wu Fei's contemptuous glare at me made me flounder. "You are a criminal, by your own admission. You sell scrap on a station known for being a den of the corrupt. You wheel and deal in contraband, in a quick credit, in the lawlessness of-"

"Wu Fei!' Heero snapped and I looked at his angry face. Heero's eyes almost seem to glow under his dark brows. I could see his muscles tensing, his jaw working. "I didn't plan this, but it's happened. If you want, I can take myself off the mission, but I've established myself as Duo's assistant already and his... "

He couldn't finish and I was forced to come to his rescue now, but with a dangerous edge to my voice that let Wu Fei know that I wasn't backing down, wasn't apologizing, or making excuses for what I was, for what me and Heero were doing. "We didn't plan it this way, but people don't have much to do except gossip. Everyone in Market Row thinks Heero's my fuck, so we have our story solid and straight. You mess with that now and everyone's going to know something's up."

My temper was carrying me through, but, underneath it, I was feeling overwhelmed, coming to terms, all at once, and having to defend a relationship I hadn't finished figuring out yet. I guess I was really defending Heero and the rest was a painful byproduct.

Wu Fei glared at Heero and raised a black eyebrow. "It seems we have a problem."

We had more than that when the station suddenly shuddered and machinery groaned. Heero was secure, I didn't have to check on that. Wu Fei wasn't. I saw him sway... backwards... towards a very long, deadly fall. I didn't think past that. I reacted with reflexes trained into me during the war and a speed and agility some people thought were inhuman. We all had it. That's part of why we had been chosen. It carried me down, gave me the ability to dance over heaving, sliding metal, and grab onto Wu Fei's hands. Our grips locked and I braced my feet against whatever machine we were standing on. Using the power of my legs to push us back to safety, I landed on my back hard with Wu Fei between my legs on top.

We rode out the shaking. I had a long, embarrassed minute to feel Wu Fei's crotch pressing intimately against my own, his chest plastered against mine, and his cheek pressing into my collarbone. He smelled like incense and L2 dust. Then the scrap pile was sliding and we heard a very loud crash.

Dust rose up in clouds. We blinked against it. I thought about a prayer, some confession, and then just settled on some cursing.

"Heero!" I shouted.

"Secure!" he shouted back, almost in my ear. I wasn't sure how he could be, especially when the dust drifted away and I could see that the top of the pile had fallen off and that I was now on top and not on the side of it any longer. The chill of that realization almost made me piss my pants and it made me numb to the fact that Heero hand his fingers dug into my shoulders so hard if felt like he was pushing into bone.

Wu Fei began to shove up off me, swearing. The feeling was mutual. I didn't feel an ounce of sexual attraction towards him and I disliked him enough that I didn't even want him touching me, especially not like we were. I was forced to wrap legs around him, though, and hold him down.

"Don't move, you stupid fuck!" I hissed in his ear. "Do you want the rest of this pile to go over?" He froze, but his entire body was stiff as if my touch was polluting him and he could hardly stand it. It would have been easy to think that he should have got over that the instant that I had saved his life, but, stick two males, of any species, together, who didn't like each other, and make them rub crotches. At least we weren't trying to kill each other... yet.

"We should go down, one at a time," Heero suggested. "It's the safest way."

I agreed. "Uh, you're amputating my arms, Heero, do you mind...?" Heero eased off and I couldn't help groaning in relief. When I could catch my breath, I told him. "You first ." Screw Wu Fei. The first person down probably had the best chance of making it. The more disturbance to the pile, the more likely it would go over. The last person down was going to be in the most danger. Heero didn't need a manual on the scrap piles of L2 to know that. He wasn't stupid.

"Duo-" Heero began to protest, but I cut him off.

"This is my yard, dammit, and I give the freakin' orders!" I shouted. "Get the hell down from this pile, now!"

"I'll go next door and get their earth mover," Heero suggested.

I shook my head, giving him a hard look. "We're too high up. It's my own damned fault, Yuy, so let me take the fall. Go down now." I measured out each word of that last sentence.

Heero reached out, glanced nervously at Wu Fei, who wasn't saying anything, and then touched my face. Heero looked completely anguished and open for a moment, and then he was turning and following my orders, slowly climbing down the teetering pile of metal parts.

"Don't move or I will twist your head off," I warned Wu Fei. He growled angrily, but he complied. We both listened to Heero moving very slowly down the pile of metal. Come on, I chanted silently. You can do it. You have to get down safe... My entire being was focused on the sound of his progress.

"Clear!" Heero shouted up at last and my heart clenched in my chest.

I had signed and sealed the sale of my soul to hear that, had been promising every deity and demon I could think of a piece of me if Heero made it to safety. Yeah, I had it that bad. He meant that much to me and I wondered at how well I had hidden that fact from myself. It wasn't a new development and I knew it. It was something I'd kept down deep and locked tight, thinking I'd never have to use it, that I would never have the chance to air it out and actually FEEL it.

"Your turn," I told Wu Fei. "Make sure your footing is secure before you put weight down. Look for scrap that's jammed in tight. Don't trust large slabs." He was looking at me as I talked, neck craned at a painful angle and body even tenser than before. He looked pissed and confused. "Go!" I exclaimed, furious, and he twitched and blinked when I accidentally spit the word.

Wu Fei's jaw worked and then he gave one nod. I had this sense that it was more than a confirmation of my order. I was giving his life precedence over my own. I'm sure he thought that I wasn't as good as him, and that he did think he deserved to live more, but having me okay that was probably something worth at least a tiny bit of respect.

Wu Fei lifted his weight off of me, slow and cautious. He shifted sideways and it was a relief to get his damn crotch off of mine and his scent out of my nose. When metal groaned and shifted under us, he froze though. We both sweated bullets until the pile fell silent and went still again.

He began climbing down. I didn't move, was too afraid to, and I stared up at the 'sky', at the roof of the station almost lost in a haze above me. When the scrubbers descended, I moaned. They wouldn't effect the pile of scrap, but it was just one more stress, listening to the sound and watching the dust rise up in whirling, drifting forms as the air was cleaned.

"Clear!" Wu Fei shouted and I closed my eyes and let out a breath of relief.

"Get the hell away from the pile!" I shouted for all I was worth when the scrubbers ended their cycle and lifted up again. "You can't help me get down and the pile might fall over again!"

I don't know if they listened. I slowly sat up and then began my own climb down, all my attention on my hands and feet as I tried not to pull the stack over on me or have it slide out from under me as I climbed down. At one point, I felt something give under my hand and a piece of scrap, the size of a car, slid towards my face. It stopped a bare inch from my swollen nose and I stared at it, frozen, mind calculating size and weight and how close I had come to being a grease spot. Very slowly, I shifted away from it and continued down, heart pounding madly.

"Yuy!" I heard Wu Fei shout as I touched ground and hard hands were fisting my clothes and hauling me away from the stack.

I was enjoying being alive too much for a moment to process anything and then I focused on Heero's face close to my own and I realized that he was the one twisting the front of my shirt and looking me anxiously in the face. I grinned at him and clouted him on the shoulder. He grinned back at me and gave me a rueful shake, before letting go of me.

"You are both complete fools!" Wu Fei announced.

We turned to look at him and then looked at each other. I laughed first. Heero's guilty look turned into humor and he began laughing as well. We had almost died, but we had conquered death once again, just as we had throughout our lives, throughout the war. It gave us an instant adrenalin high, a strong sense of having poked fate in the eye and given it the finger. Maybe Heero's career was over? Maybe Wu Fei would have me arrested, feeling that I was useless to him now? It didn't matter, not then. We were going to enjoy our victory and to hell with everyone and everything, including Chang Wu Fei.


	13. Two's Company

Lawless Hearts  
Part 13:Two's Company  
by Kracken

 

"Allright?" Heero asked as I sat down in the chair behind my office desk and gingerly touched my aching shoulders. Heero was standing by me anxiously, but Wu Fei was by the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest, giving me his best ice man glare.

I glared back and grumbled, "You can at least look happy to be alive, Wu-man. We were pretty damned close to getting our ticket punched out there."

Wu Fei grunted. He'd never liked my nicknames during the war and he sure as hell wasn't going to like them now.

Heero began pulling at my shirt. I resisted, irritated. I didn't want to be half naked and feeling vulnerable in front of Wu Fei. Heero persisted and we battled over the shirt. I only stopped the tug of war when I suddenly realized that it looked far more ridiculous than having Heero simply check my 'wounds'. I let him lift the shirt, then, and he hissed in shock at the revealed red, and darkly bruising, prints his hands had made on my skin.

"I didn't know..." Heero began, but I cut him off.

"You kept me and Wu Fei from going over with the rest of the scrap didn't you?" I guessed. When he nodded, I snorted, "Well, then what's to apologize for?" I had enough scars to attest to the fact that I had suffered a lot worse than bruises in the past, and so did Heero, for that matter. I didn't need him making a big deal out of it.

I jerked my shirt down, wincing at the pain, and then ignored Heero's embarrassing hovering to confront Wu Fei. "Okay, now that we're all cozy and safe, what the hell ARE you doing here climbing my scrap piles, what the hell gives you the fucking right to judge me and my lifestyle, and what the hell are you doing barging in on an operation, and screaming at the operatives, a scraps throw from people who would just love to carry that bit of news all over L2?"

"The operation is already compromised," Wu Fei replied in that irritating, arrogant, tone of his. "I guessed as much when I called Yuy and informed him that I would be coming to check the operation out myself."

I look in consternation at Heero, who asked Wu Fei in confusion, "When did you call?"

Wu Fei raised a black eyebrow. His pissy look was almost ruined by the grease smudges on his face. "You don't remember my call?"

I snorted at Heero. "You were asleep when you took the call, weren't you?"

Heero blinked and then looked embarrassed. "I think I must have been."

Wu Fei took a step towards us, getting even angrier. "You have been completely unprofessional since meeting Maxwell," he told Heero, "Your dedication to this mission is in serious question. Your fraternization with a man, who is also an operative and under suspicion himself, is a serious breech of protocol. It is an indication that you have let your personal interests take precedence over the operation. I'm going to request that this mission be scrubbed immediately."

I saw Heero nod meekly. As much as I felt like smashing Wu Fei's face in for saying those things to Heero... well, he was right. I would have scrubbed a mission with Heero, too, if we had been lip locking during the war. I thought about what the sting was all about, though, and how much it would mean to the lives of my fellow L2 citizens to get rid of at least one corrupt official. I also thought about the chances of Wu Fei, or anyone else, finding a scrap man to go in on the sting with them. Scrap men are that tight when it comes to the trade and the people of L2 were incredibly suspicious, and for good reason. They wouldn't trust that they wouldn't get arrested along with the corrupt official, hell, I wasn't even sure if I was going to be arrested after it was all over.

I scratched at the worn finish of my desk with a fingernail, thinking hard. Heero wasn't cornering the guilt market right then. I had it in spades. I really hadn't been looking at the larger picture, just reacting and seriously wanting to get closer to Heero. I had a fear in my gut, a fear of taking a break from that, of putting it aside to get down to business, as if what we were exploring might not go any further if left alone.

At the end of the war, when I'd said something to Quatre, about everyone going their own way and, maybe, not having that comrade in arms friendship any longer, he'd said, 'If it's real, it will survive the test of separation.' Having been seriously drunk and thinking about only one particular Gundam pilot at the time, it hadn't made that much sense. Now it played back to me as if Quatre was saying it in my ear. Yeah, if Heero was serious, if it was more than just wanting in each others pants, then it could wait.

I heard Heero starting to speak, starting to say something about calling headquarters and offering an explanation and asking for a reassignment. I was glad he wasn't talking about leaving just yet. I interrupted. "Fuck that, Yuy. We can still do this."

Wu Fei grunted and began turning away, pulling a cell phone from his pocket. "I don't think so."

I was out of my chair, ignoring my aches and pains as I came around the desk and dared clamp a hard hand on Wu Fei's arm. "You came here to assess the operation, so, asses it, asshole! Actually take some time and see that we have it together, that people trust us and accept us."

Wu Fei switched to that bored, irritating drawl I'd always hated from the war, the one that said that he was calling all the shots and he didn't give a damned about what anyone else thought. "Acceptance does not make this mission sound. This is a dangerous sting. Being distracted by personal attachments and fraternization will cause you to lose focus. It might also cause you to make errors in judgment at critical times."

Translation; If I turned out to be one of the bad guys, then Heero might not pick up on that or want to rat on me because we were involved.'

I wanted to choke the life out of Wu Fei, but I didn't think it would make me feel any better. He'd still die thinking I might be a criminal and, I discovered, changing his mind about that was pretty damned important to me. I might have done some terrible things in my short life, but double crossing someone, and working with the head crooks on L2, hadn't been part of it.

"Don't give up on this yet," I told Wu Fei angrily. "We can change things. It's too damned important to trash now and you know it. I have a shack out back. We'll clean it out and Heero can stay there. We can nix getting together until our target is in jail, all right?"

"Unacceptable," Wu Fei said simply and began pulling out of my grasp.

"Then switch with Heero!" I shouted at him. "You work for me and we'll go from there. That way, you can make sure things don't get screwed up."

That appealed to Wu Fei's sense that he had to do everything himself for it to go right and I knew it. He stopped and considered it. "What would you tell them to account for my presence here?"

My mind scrambled and then I grinned, knowing I would come up with something when it came down to it. "You leave that up to me."

Wu Fei scowled. "You do not inspire confidence."

I told him angrily, "What have you got to lose? If the mission is scrubbed already in your mind, it won't get any worse if I don't handle things right. Wait and see, okay?"

Wu Fei still hesitated.

"Come on!" I shouted. "You know this is important enough to try!"

Wu Fei looked very sour and then he gave a curt nod. "It is important." His dark eyes skewered me, "Important enough to salvage if possible."

I let out a breath of relief and turned to Heero. Heero was looking thoughtful. I faced him, uncomfortable and not sure what he was thinking. "Sorry about this," I told him roughly. "I wasn't thinking about what this sting means to everyone here. I was all caught up in... well... us... and the business making it." I blurted, looking down at the dusty floor, "Guess I'm still just a self sacrificing little shit even after the war."

Heero was quiet. I finally dared to look up at him and he was nodding and sinking his hands into his pockets without looking at me. What that gesture meant, I wasn't sure. Does he agree with me or not? Does he think I'm a shit for agreeing with Wu Fei that we're screw ups? It was possible that he hated me for shelving 'us' and insisting on going ahead with the sting. I couldn't read him, as much as I wanted to just then, and standing there for much longer was going to confirm to Wu Fei that he should scrub the mission.

"Okay," I said to cover up the awkwardness. "I think I want to avoid scrap for right now, until I'm convinced it's done falling over, so lets go get parts for the claw. It'll give me a chance to introduce everyone to Wu Fei and see how that goes over."

Wu Fei liked that idea. He wanted results and he didn't want to have to wait for a conclusion. He knew, as well as I did, that I was too broke to explain having TWO hired hands. Heero and Wu Fei didn't have the seedy, alcohol ruined, faces of my last crew, so saying he was working for a roof over his head, wasn't going to cut it. Heero had the excuse of bedtime fringe benefits, but no one was going to believe that I had two of them on a string. I had a reputation for being picky and almost celibate after all. A plan was already percolating in my head, though, as I put on my hat and led the way out of the shack. I was damned sure Wu Fei AND Heero weren't going to like it, but it was the only plausible explanation that I could think of.

I'd once told Heero that being seen and outrageous was a better cover than being plain and secretive. Well, I was about to test that theory in a major way.

"Just follow my lead," I told them.

I lead the way out of my lot and towards the market. The dirt was drying and beginning to cover everything again. It tickled my nose and coated my skin. I scratched at it irritably and inched my bandana up to my nose. Heero, one step behind me, did the same. Wu Fei, trailed behind us, hands in his pockets and back straight, ignoring any discomfort. He was giving everything a disdainful look. Perfect. He was making it very easy for me.

When we reached the line of stalls, I stopped them both. "You two go check out Mudhopper and let me get the parts." I paused and then decided that I needed to reveal at least some of my plan. "Wu Fei, in case anyone asks, you're Heero's unemployed cousin just come from L3. Got that?" Wu Fei narrowed eyes at me. I grinned. "Just keep up that attitude, too."

Wu Fei glared at Heero, who was looking puzzled but supportive of me. That made me feel damned good. He was trusting me. I left them to their own devices and found the stall that had the parts for the claw.

I pounded on the counter to get the owner's attention and a man came out of the back of the stall wiping grease from his hands onto a leather apron. Bald and built like a bull, he sported about a dozen silver earrings in one ear and had a circular tattoo on his cheek.

He didn't say his usual, 'I don't give credit.' If there was something to know, he usually knew it. The man had an ear in on everything that went on around the scrap yards. I'm sure he was well aware that loser Maxwell had made a sale.

"I need some parts for my claw, Seiffer" I told him and made my voice irritated, as if I were on the edge of losing it. I ran a distracted hand through my bangs and slumped on the counter as I slid the parts list at him. I knew he couldn't resist asking and I wasn't disappointed.

"Thought you'd be happy," Seiffer drawled as he took the list and eyed it. "You made that sale..."

"Business is good. Life isn't," I ground out.

"Oh?" He sounded bored, like he didn't give a damn as he pulled out a spec book, filthy with dirt and grease, and began flipping through it for my model of claw. Why he didn't use a computer... maybe L2 dust and machine grease was just too hard on them.

I crossed my arms and rested my chin on them, leaning on the counter as if I was sinking into massive depression. "You don't wanna know..."

Seiffer put a bill of sale next to the book and began scribbling with his grease stained, calloused, pudgy fingers. "Trouble with that new guy?"

I grunted in answer. Seiffer was good. He made it seem like he was just making senseless small talk; non offensive, non evasive.

"Take people off the street, that's what you get," Seiffer lectured. "No good. Unreliable.... Got kind of personal with this one too... That must suck."

I snickered to myself. He wanted the dirt so bad he was willing to prod, to get a bit more pointed. It was just too strange that this big burly guy was the biggest gossip on L2, that he indulged in something that I'd always imagined was the territory of fine ladies having tea parties and coffee klatches....

I straightened and burst out, as if I couldn't keep it in any longer, "His freakin' cousin showed up and he told him he could stay, just like that, without asking me first! The guy is a class one a-hole and he never saw a minute of work in his life!"

Seiffer grunted. "Heard there was yelling on your lot. Guess that was why."

I couldn't help blinking at him, thinking about what little time had passed. I settled on pissy as I responded with, "You heard that? I had a pile of scrap go over and almost trash us. Anybody hear that?"

That wasn't really fair. Scrap piles fell all the time, especially during the quakes, and it was pretty much every man for himself. If we had died, someone might have come to investigate when the smell got too bad, but otherwise... hey, it was a tough place, L2, and I didn't have any illusions otherwise.

Seiffer was shrugging as he finished his paper and put away the book. "Looks like you'll have to jettison the both of them," he said, ignoring my comment on scrap piles. He didn't want to know about that, after all. "Too bad. You can't run that lot by yourself. Any new prospects or you settling on giving the lot over?"

I saw red, there wasn't any other way to put it. My act suddenly turned real as I leaned over the counter and jabbed a finger into Seiffer's leather clad chest. "Fuck that!" I shouted. "Nobody gets my lot! As long as my help works, his asshole cousin can stay in my bum shack and starve to death for all I care. He's not getting any handouts from me!"

Seiffer grunted again, expressive and satisfied. "Eh, calm down, Maxwell. No offense."

I pulled myself back until my feet were on the ground again and I looked almost apologetic as I pulled my shirt back into place. "Sorry, man," I said and didn't sound it. "My problems are mine, okay? I just need those parts."

"Sure thing," Seiffer replied and went to look through his inventory shed. Soon he would spread his new gossip all over L2. Duo Maxwell's employee, slash lover, was still working, but he'd foisted off a good for nothing cousin on stupid Maxwell. stay tuned for further developments.

Seiffer handed me the parts in several boxes, and I carried the heavy things back to where Heero and Wu Fei were staring out of the now dried field of dirt and my half submerged Mudhopper. I handed some of my burden to Heero and said proudly, "Mission accomplished."


	14. Pride

Lawless Hearts  
Part 14:Pride  
by Kracken

 

"Maxwell," Wu Fei began with a frown, but the sound of a large machine trundling our way interrupted him.

Gouting black smoke, and smelling like leaking gasoline, a claw machine was coming right at us. Heero and Wu Fei were backing up and Heero was plucking at my sleeve. I scowled at the machine and held my ground.

My lot neighbor, Stubbert, was glaring at me, half leaning out of the cab, a stubby cigar hanging out of his mouth. Without a word, and at the last possible moment, he swerved his machine to miss me and plowed it into the dried mud. Big wheels churned up the yellowish- red dirt and threw it on us as the machine made it's way to Mudhopper. It didn't pause as it lowered its claw and latched onto my little machine. Pulling it free, with contemptuous ease, it freed Mudhopper from its mud tomb and then shifted gears to carry it back to me.

Stubbert leaned further out of the cab, the engine of his claw chugging and its gears grinding as he growled loudly, "I owed you." Just that and nothing more as he pivoted his machine and trundled away towards my lot with Mudhopper.

I frowned. Heero looked from me to the retreating machine. "You don't look happy about that," Heero noticed.

I shrugged irritably. "He owed me a favor. I could have used it better. Our claw could have pulled Mudhopper out." I ignored Heero's skeptical look at the deep, churned up mud. Okay, maybe not, but he didn't have to point that out.

"Maxwell," Wu Fei grated impatiently. "Explain."

"I saved his life, kind of," I told Wu Fei, using my bandana to wipe sweat and dried mud off my face. "He decided that he didn't want to wait for me to collect on the debt, so he salvaged my machine for me."

Wu Fei should really patent that glare of his. I could almost feel my skin grilling from the heat from it. "You know what I meant," he said.

Okay, now I had to fess up. "Come on," I grunted and led the way back towards my lot, following the large tire tracks of Stubbert's machine.

I mulled over what to say, chewing over words with a wince frozen on my face. I knew Wu Fei's pride just as well as I knew his temper. Finally, turning so that my back wasn't to him and vulnerable, because I really wasn't sure how he was going to take it, I explained, "Well... seeing as how you wanted to stay... I let everyone know that you were Heero's cousin and that he was letting you stay. I also let them know that I... didn't like that, because..."

"Because?" Wu Fei prompted.

I looked around at the empty alley and the worn, dirt coated wood and plastiwood fencing on either side of us. The stench of rusting metal was everywhere. It was always more noticeable after a rain. I felt really tired just then and I didn't want to deal with Heero and our tentative relationship, Wu Fei and his pissy attitude and threats, and the other scrappers who were all out to step on my head to make their own business a success. Even the heat, that was steadily growing, seemed against me. I'd always felt like 'Duo Maxwell against the world', but I didn't usually notice it so much and it didn't usually sit on my shoulders like a three ton claw machine.

"You're a good for nothing layabout who won't, or can't, get work." I just said it to get it over with, but I was proud of myself that I left off the a-hole part. Well, he didn't need that part of the story, because he didn't need to ACT like one.

The muscles on Wu Fei's jaw bunched and I knew his teeth were grinding together. I also knew what he was thinking. He didn't get it.

"Look!" I exploded under my breath, getting dangerously close to him so that no one could overhear. "When you tell a damned story, you have to make people believe it. A story goes over better if there's some soap opera to it, okay? If I just say, 'Oh, by the way, Heero's cousin moved in with us.' that makes people ask questions. If I say, 'Heero's bum cousin moved in without my say so, and now I'm mad as hell, and things are shit between me and Heero right now...' Well, that answers a lot of questions. It keeps people satisfied and they end up just watching the drama instead of asking more questions."

I backed off and waited for his reaction.

Those black eyes skewered me. Wu Fei's jaw continued to grind for about a minute and then he nodded, hard, once. "Acceptable, for now."

The tail end of that sentence wasn't lost on me. I couldn't help a dig, though. "You're going to trust me?"

Wu Fei lifted his chin, his demeanor going cold and arrogant as he said in a very seething, but quiet voice, "You saved my life. I... owe you. I will allow this, but I intend to coordinate the sting personally from now on."

That weight on my shoulders grew another hump and I ached with it. I rubbed at my eyes, trying to keep my temper, trying to hold it all together. I didn't want to bottle it up. I knew where that led. I didn't want to haul off and beat up Wu Fei the way I had Heero when things had become too much. For one thing, Wu Fei WOULD haul my ass off to jail and he would cancel the entire operation. He was on the verge of it as it was. Only his pride, in not wanting the mission to fail, and his honor, were keeping the sting alive.

"We have a lot of work to do," I sighed as I began walking again. "I expect you and Heero to clean out the back shack today, though, while I fix the claw. You'll both be living there from now on."

It was a reasonable arrangement in light of what Wu Fei wanted. It didn't make the decision hurt less. I wanted to get used to waking up with Heero's warm body pressed to mine. I didn't want to stop things and go back to being alone. That neediness was a two edged sword. On the one hand, I yearned for Heero, on the other, I hated my loss of independence, my reliance on only myself.

My self reliance had kept me alive. Anyone who had ever tried to take care of me, and to be a part of my life, had died; had failed me. It went against everything that had shaped me, went against that ingrained sense that being alone, and depending on only myself, was the best way. During the war, Quatre had shown me what counting on others, on being a team could mean. It was hard, though, to apply that lesson to the life I led now.

When we reached the gate to my lot, I found Mudhopper sprawled on its side just outside, caked in mud. I touched the twisted handlebars and saw the smashed gas tank. I didn't look further than that. I didn't have time to fix her, probably wouldn't have time for a long while. Putting down my boxes of parts and grabbing onto the damaged machine, I gave my comrades a look that told them they were helping and to shut up about whatever they were thinking. So what if a hunk of metal made me all choked up?

Heero moved first, finding a good handhold at the front. We both looked at Wu Fei. He glared back, made an exasperated sound, and then took up a position at the rear to push.

"On three, " I told them and we all began rocking the damaged piece of metal to get it out of the depression that had been caused by it being dumped from the height of Stubbert's claw. He hadn't been gentle and had probably considering it useless scrap.

"One, two.... three."

We heaved and pushed. Heero did most of the work. That man is so unbelievably freakin strong... Wu Fei wasn't a slouch pushing, either, and that surprised me. He had broad shoulders, but he was slighter than I was.

I told them to stop after we had managed to get Mudhopper just inside my fence, safe from other scrap men making a claim. Later, when we had the claw working, I would treat her properly, I silently promised her.

"Now, if we could get on with it?" Wu Fei said disdainfully as he brushed his hands together to get off the dirt.

I couldn't help smirking, but I turned my shoulder to Wu Fei to hide it and said to Heero, as I picked up my boxes again, "Show him where the cleaning supplies are. There's a power hose out there too. Just make sure you open the drain to reclaim the water or we'll be going without water until our next allotment period. On L2, that could take a year." That wasn't an exaggeration.

Was Heero angry? Was he sad? Was he confused as to why I was turning him out to live with Wu Fei? As Heero bent to pick up his own boxes, and began following me to the claw, I snuck a look and found him sneaking one at me. Our eyes locked. Okay, it sounds stupid, and it seems impossible, but... we exchanged a whole hell of a lot in that look. I felt like we had just spent all night talking. He understood that the situation was necessary. He understood that I wasn't rejecting him. He agreed with me. He reassured me that everything was still okay between us. He told me how much our separation was going to make him unhappy. We both told each other how much we wanted it to all be over so that we could be together again, alone, without the Preventers messing things up for us. All of that in a few seconds of staring at each other and then we were looking away, not wanting to give Wu Fei a show. It would have been nice if we could have had sex with a look too, but I firmly cut that thought off as I dumped my boxes on the fender of the claw. I repositioned my hat to keep the reflected sun from giving me heatstroke.

"Once we are done with these 'duties'," Wu Fei told me, "I will be looking over your accounts and we will make a solid, reasonable plan for making contact with our target."

"I think we had a 'reasonable' plan already," I grated as I flipped open the engine casing. It made a creaking, rusted metal, protest . "Build up the business, get some contraband material in, act like complete amatures, and get Mr. Big to snap at the bait."

Wu Fei narrowed dark eyes and gave Heero a look. Heero met that look with one of his own. "We can't afford to spend the time necessary to bring this business back from it's financial troubles," Wu Fei informed me. That told me what he thought of my business. "Hopeless' probably summed it up.

"If we-" Heero began to protest, but Wu Fei cut him off .

"Selling out of desperation, to save a failing business, is a more valid reason than jeopardizing one that is doing well," Wu Fei explained. "Don't you agree?" His tone said, 'Of course you will agree, because I am a genius.'

I was really finding it hard not to punch his arrogant lights out, especially because he was making sense and I was starting to understand that Heero had agreed with Wu Fei's plan all along as well and had... not gone through with it because of me, because he had actually given a shit, unlike Wu Fei, that my business was going under. As a street orphan, a con man from the time I could walk, I could see someone falling for the scam, someone rushing in to take advantage of a credit strapped Duo Maxwell. Happened all the time...

Heero looked as if he was going to make one more protest on my behalf, but I was the one who cut him off now. I said, pissed as hell, but keeping my voice tight and reasonable, "Okay, that makes sense. So... When do you want to do it?"

Wu Fei blinked. It was so obvious that he hadn't expected me to agree with him that my hand actually balled into that fist I wanted to throw into his chin. He said, "After I review your situation, we will discuss likely contacts and ways to ship the contraband into your lot in a believable manner."

A person could take that two ways, either he was complimenting me on being intelligent and knowledgeable about human behavior, or he was saying I was a good liar. There was a difference.

"You better get cleaning," I told Wu Fei with a tight smile. "That shack is pretty dirty and I only have one bed in mine. I don't think you'd want to share it with me and Heero...?"

Wu Fei's nostrils flared. A bit of a homophobe? Maybe... or maybe the thought of cuddling with me, inparticular, was disgusting him? Heero was smart enough to get Wu Fei away from me before he could give me a choice reply.

I carted my tools over to the claw and started working. At some point, I heard loud cursing in Chinese, and I grinned in a very evil way. I felt bad for Heero, though. I had promised to help him. I couldn't work up the guilt, though, to make me stop and go over there. There was still a part of me that blamed Heero for my situation right along with Wu Fei. He'd gone a long way to making it up, but there was really no way that he could salvage everything. Things were in motion, my life was tied down to the sting, and the train of the law he had set in motion, was going to run my ass over no matter what anyone said or didn't say. I couldn't help that part of me that was happy about Heero cleaning crap out of a shed that was frying in the sun.

Speaking of frying... I wiped sweat from my dripping forehead, took off my hat, and tied my bandana around my forehead. Putting my hat back on over it, I continued to work as the temperature rose to furnace like heat. The god of the weather controls was hell bent on drying the last ounce of water from the scrap yards, it seemed, and everyone else in them.

Someone put an ice cold container of water by my hand. I blinked dazedly at it as I bent over the engine with a wrench in my lax hand. I'm not sure how long I'd been standing like that, wasn't really sure just how long it had been since I had actually done something to the engine.

"You look dehydrated," Heero told me worriedly.

"You stink," I said hoarsely, as I snagged the water, opened it up, and took small, cautious sips. I warmed the water in my mouth before swallowing, knowing what a sudden shock of cold could do to a heat exhausted body.

Heero plucked at his filthy shirt. "I hope you're talking about the smell?"

I could only nod as I rolled the cold drink across my forehead and closed my eyes in pleasure.

"The shack was bad, but hitting it with the hose saved us a lot of work," Heero explained. He paused and then said more seriously, "Duo, I'm sorry..."

I swallowed some more water and squinted at him. "You tried to bend things in my favor, I can't help but feel good about that, but the rest..."

Heero picked up a tool and bent over the engine. He began tightening a part as he replied, "Wu Fei's taking complete control of the operation. I'm to follow orders or he will pull me completely from the field."

"He's right, Heero, and you know it," I said as I put my wrench in and helped him with the part. As we struggled together, I continued sourly, "Knowing that it makes my situation that much more shitty, doesn't change that."

We were quiet; grunting, sweating, getting covered in grease, and both of us draining the water container as we finished putting in the new pump. I climbed into the cab then and cranked the engine. It complained, spluttered, chugged, and then roared to life with a gout of black smoke. I whooped loudly in relief, pumping the air in victory with my fist. Heero grinned up at me, the heat from the engine rolling over him. God! he looked beautiful just then, and I couldn't help jumping down from the claw, grabbing him, and devouring his lips. I shoved him away in the next instant, laughing at his hungry, glazed, and confused look.

"You stink even more now!" I told him with disgust that wasn't completely faked.

"You don't exactly smell like flowers, either," Heero told me.

I looked over his shoulder at the shack with a calculated look. The stiffness in my pants was telling me to do one thing, that involved a hot shower and two naked bodies getting clean, but my brain was sneering and telling me that was exactly the 'fraternization' Wu Fei was talking about and the kind of thing I had decided not to engage in until the sting was over. I needed it so bad, though, needed Heero.

Heero was suddenly very close to me. His blue eyes looked dangerous and I was almost ready to fight him when he pushed me behind the claw, out of anyone's line of site. Our cover was a shadow cast by the claw against a spot between it and a wall. When Heero's hand kneaded my erection I felt... It was like getting jolted with electricity, powerful and intense. When he squeezed the head and palmed it, my knees shook.

"Fuck, Wu Fei," Heero said in my ear and then bit me there, sucking and nibbling my lobe as he popped open my jeans and then shoved them down off my hips.

The combination of the foul word and Heero's aggressive actions almost made me shoot my load right there. My... nervousness, kept me primed, though, kept me from going over completely as I thought about discovery and being half naked out in my lot. I'm not a damned exhibitionist, but I'd done it against walls in back alleys before. Night time, and some strong alcohol, knock down a lot of inhibitions, though.

Heero took my hand and pressed it against his own erection. I knew what he had in mind, some mutual jerking, and I couldn't help grabbing the fullness there in his jeans. I knew, though, as horny and as testosterone pumped as I was, that the odds of a customer showing up, or, more likely, Wu Fei, was pretty high. It was enough to keep me from going to my knees and saying 'hello' to Heero's needy half and it was enough to keep me from letting him stroke my problem child too.

"Heero... stop... I... can't... I'm..." I give him points for breaking off and looking at me in concern, even though his hands were still on the job. "Out here," I gave a nervous nod at the yard outside of our shadow. "It's just... too..."

Heero grunted. He took a reluctant step back, but his hands were pulling at his own need and well on his way to a case of blue balls. "I shouldn't have... I just wanted... I was just unsure...," Heero stammered and then stopped , sentences left unfinished. He had wanted to make sure of me, make sure of us, all romantic gazing into each other's eyes aside. What we can fuck, we can claim as ours, and almost nothing else rises to that level of assured possessiveness for most male psyches, I think.

"I'm not going anywhere," I told him fiercely, "We're still going to be together after the sting."

I could see the doubt in Heero's eyes, the fear that something would happen that would be the last straw, that would destroy what we were building between us.

I reached out, grabbed him by the neck, and pulled him in to kiss him hard. He returned the fierceness of the kiss and let me lead him, afterward, to the outside shower I kept for emergency purposes. Pulling us both under the spigot, I pulled the chain. A powerful jet of cold water soaked us both and I let it continue to soak us until both of us cooled off, in more ways than one. When Heero pushed my hand off the chain and the water stopped, his bangs were hanging in his blue eyes and water dripped off his nose as he blinked at me.

"Love you," Heero said abruptly and I knew then what he wanted, what would cement us together, with a bond even stronger than sex, until this was all over.

I didn't know if I could meet that declaration with one of my own. It wasn't a 'love you' you said offhandedly to everyone in general. It wasn't a 'love you' you said to keep someone occupied while you found your shoes to leave. It was the 'I want you to commit to us, to me,' 'Love you.'

I looked at Heero, studied him, and watched the water droplets fall from his face and glitter on their way down to the muddied dirt under our soaked boots. I thought about losing him, of having him go away and never return... want to know how you really know when you're in love? When the thought of not having them any more makes your life seem like an absolute waste; worthless, and pointless.

I grabbed Heero by the hair at the nape of his neck, tangled my fingers into the wet strands there, and pulled him in towards me sharply until our foreheads were resting together. We blinked at each other, our water droplets mingling, and then I said it, and it was like... pulling my soul out of my chest and giving it to him, trusting him not to crush it.... "Love you, too."

The world stopped. We forgot to breathe. Heero slowly smiled, blinked rapidly, and I had the feeling that some salty drops had suddenly joined the fresh water ones on his face as he jerked out of my grasp and looked down at his wet clothes. I found myself looking away as well, unable to endure that confession of how we felt for each other. I don't think we'll ever be good at having 'moments'. They just embarrass the hell out of us.

I tried to recover first. I rubbed the back of my neck and said awkwardly, "Well, I'm guessing Wu Fei is probably pissed as hell that you aren't helping him. You should get back there and I should start dismantling that big pile of scrap."

"Yes," Heero said in quick agreement and then glanced at me and then away. He swallowed hard, but he was smiling again. "I don't think I can last, staying away from you... not..."

Screw Wu Fei and what he thought about Heero and me. Things had changed. "If I catch you being anything but completely devoted to this operation, I'll cut you off." I saw Heero wince at my choice of words, "But if you can keep your eye on the prize, I think we can manage somewhere else, more private... later... where Mr. Chang Wu Fei can't find us..."

"I will be completely dedicated," Heero promised and his double meaning was clear by the glint in his eyes.

"I won't expect anything less," I retorted over my shoulder as I went back to work.


	15. Sow's Ear

Lawless Hearts  
Part 15:Sow's Ear  
by Kracken

 

I had a lot of time to think as I separated scrap with the claw. Uppermost on my mind, was the fact that I was wasting my time. Heero's plans to separate, sort, and inventory everything, his plan to straighten out my troubles with L2 Revenue, and his intentions of pulling my business out of the red, were now defunct. The only thing I was doing now was keeping up appearances.

There's nothing like chewing on anger and bitterness in high heat. It makes a man rise to a new level of 'pissed off' and 'depressed as hell'. Sure I could be happy that Heero wasn't going to dump me along with everything else, that he actually wanted some promises of commitment from me, but what was he getting? What was going to be left of Duo Maxwell when it was all over? Possibilities ranged from homeless loser to Preventer lockup inmate. Any way I looked at it, I wasn't a prize to begin with, and I definitely wasn't going to end up one after it was all over.

Thinking like that brought me back to my original, insurmountable worries about where we were going with our relationship. Preventer Agent. Scrapman. The two were as opposed to each other as a person could get. Even if I ended up losing everything, it was still hard to put the two of us together in some sort of life. Heero was all about commitment, dedication, and self sacrifice in a position honored by everyone. I was all about surviving, scrabbling, and living on the edge of society. I couldn't see myself moving to a place in the pristine city and being on the other side, being one of those citizens who looked down on scrapmen and never wondered if the weather and the water supply were different for the have nots. I couldn't see Heero turning his back on what he held dear and taking up scrap.

I tossed a large chunk of something onto the pile, the last of it, and then backed the claw into its space. The engine died with a splutter, warning me that it intended not to start the next time I tried it. Climbing down, and burning my hands on the hot metal, I swore and landed awkwardly. I flinched in surprise when Heero's hand was under my elbow suddenly to steady me.

He let go when he saw I was steady, but he continued to look worried. I took off my hat and my bandana and rubbed the sweat and dirt off of my face. I coughed grit and then asked, "Get done?"

My voice must have been full of what I'd been stewing over for hours. Heero frowned as he answered, "You're angry."

No shit, I thought, but put my hat back on, and dipped my head so that the brim hid my eyes, as I replied, "I'm a smart man. I don't need anyone to add up the score for me."

He blinked, thinking about that and then he leaned in close, understanding. "It is very important that we finish this sting," he told me, "but I intend to do all of the things that we planned."

I sneered, I couldn't help it, "And Wu-man is going to let you do that?"

Heero became intense. "Wu Fei isn't my superior, only my partner. There are regulations, rules, that must be followed, but helping you and your business doesn't conflict with those. We are scrapmen. We are supposed to be interested in making this business a success. If we sit and do nothing until we are contacted by our targets, that's suspicious, out of the ordinary."

"And when it's over and it's time to leave?" Okay, I was a blunt son of a bitch. I always have needed it all spelled out and on the table.

Heero scowled. He leaned in even closer, his blue eyes boring into mine. "What I'm feeling for you, isn't going to go away after the operation. What we said earlier to each other... I meant it."

My anger deflated, but my bitterness wouldn't. I'd been on the toe end of the kick too many times. Heero might have the best intentions, he might really love me, but life had a way of tearing that out of my hands in ways he couldn't begin to know. Talk was just that, talk. I needed to see it happening to actually believe in it.

Heero looked frustrated when he saw that I was going to continue to be pessimistic. His grip on my arm was hard. "Wu Fei may seem like-"

"An asshole," I interjected, frowning.

Heero grimaced and then went on, "There is a man under that and he is honorable. He won't stand in the way of my helping you as long as-"

I shook my head sharply and he stopped talking as I looked down at my dirty boots. "Honor doesn't have anything to do with it."

I didn't want to talk about it anymore. Heero didn't seem to understand that Wu Fei thought that I was a criminal, beneath contempt. He couldn't see that part of Wu Fei's attitude towards me was caused by the fact that I was a low life scrapman and that he considered me way beneath Heero's class. He was disappointed in Heero. He was upset by Heero's lapses in judgment where it concerned me, and, I could tell that he was more than half afraid that I was going to fall and take Heero down with me. I couldn't blame him for that last bit. I was worried about that myself.

"So, you didn't answer my question," I sidestepped. "Are you done with the shack?"

"Yes," Heero replied in a subdued voice. I could tell that he didn't like to be doubted, especially by me, and that he still wanted to reassure me about his intentions.

"Let's go see," I prompted, not wanting to give him the chance to talk more about us, about my business. I had stewed about that enough today and I was done twisting myself in a knot over it. When it came right down to it, a lot of things were out of my control, and Heero could say all he wanted, but he couldn't, in the end, tell the world how to treat Duo Maxwell. Wu Fei would happily see me in jail. My lot mate would happily see me dead and my lot open for his claim. L2 would happily like to tax me out of business, one less scrap man to clutter the station. It almost felt good to get back on familiar ground, back to the me against the world... almost.

When I began leading the way to the shack, Heero leaned into my shoulder and gave me a small shove, making me stumble. I put my hands in my pockets, hunched my shoulders, and couldn't help smiling. I shoved back. He stumbled, smiled, and we walked together with me in a slightly better mood. Life had some major shit potential, but having Heero there, even if all he could do was care about me, was comforting in a way I'd never anticipated. Hard, bitter me, would have plowed through whatever came my way, alone and fighting until the end. It was different going into the battle with someone fighting by my side.

The doors and windows of the shack were wide open. I smelled caustic, industrial cleaners as I mounted the steps and cautiously went inside. Wu Fei was opening up one of two cots. Aside from a refrigerator, a sink, and a small cube stove, the place had been completely emptied. The walls, floors, and the one narrow counter that divided the room from the 'kitchen', were spotless. I had an image of Wu Fei going along the baseboards with a fine toothbrush. I'd never seen the place that clean, even when Hilde had been living there.

"Nice," was all I could figure out to say.

Wu Fei straightened and I felt the burn of his dark glare. He didn't say anything, though, and I knew that he couldn't contain his absolute anger at the circumstances in mere words.

I rubbed at the back of my neck as I looked anywhere but at Wu Fei. "Sorry," I told him. He really deserved an apology, whatever I felt about him.

"The circumstances were described to me by Yuy," Wu Fei told me in a voice that was strung so tight I could tell that he wanted to shout and was denying himself the opportunity.

I shot a quick look at him. Jeez! Didn't the man even sweat? It just didn't seem natural, the way he still looked so neat, cool, and collected after cleaning out a complete dive. You know, you can still give a man points for that even if you hated him.

"The floors will take time to dry," Heero said as he came out from behind me.

I noticed then that they were wet from the power hose. I gave me something to look at as I said, "Uh, I'll compensate you two for cleaning this, okay? I'll up your credits on the next sale."

Wu Fei raised a slender eyebrow. "Unnecessary. We are using it for a base of operations."

He wasn't going to give me a chance to get back a little 'face'. All I could do was look like an idiot as I found myself going out again, into the fading sunlight of evening to glare at nothing inparticular. I heard Heero snarl something and Wu Fei's cool reply, but I couldn't make out the words. Somehow, my revenge on Wu Fei had failed and I had come out looking like a vindictive moron. I wondered if Heero saw it that way, too? After all, I'd made him part of that revenge.

"I'm such a fuck up," I hissed at myself and thought about going to Market Row and getting completely shitfaced drunk. I wanted to stop my suffering for at least awhile.

An arm hooked around my waist and began pulling me towards my shack. I looked at Heero, startled. "Wu Fei wants to meditate," Heero told me, "and I want dinner, with you."

"What about 'fraternizing'?" I wondered sourly.

"My cover story is that I'm going to be inputting the scrap inventory, that you took today, into my computer and getting my things from your shack," Heero told me with a pleased smirk. "Both legitimate excuses."

"Heero," I began, feeling a pleased thrill, but still feeling bad enough to drown that out.

"He took a shower and changed his clothes," Heero told me.

I blinked. "What?"

"Before we came to the shack," Heero explained, amused, "He does sweat, stink, and get filthy just like everyone else, Duo, and he does have a heart under all that assholeness. He didn't argue when I told him I was going with you."

"Assholeness?" I snickered, emotions letting go, suddenly. So, my nemesis wasn't superhuman. I started feeling less... inferior and that naturally put me in a better mood. "If he has a heart, it's made out of rusted scrap."

We went into my shack. I stretched sore muscles and yawned as I went into the bedroom. When I noticed that Heero hadn't followed me, I turned and looked back into the office. He was standing near the desk, taking off his hat and rubbing at the grit on his face as his eyes took in the nearly empty room.

"What? Heat stroke?" I wondered.

Heero quirked a smile at me, but it didn't reach his eyes. He motioned to the room. "How much did those men steal? You don't even have pictures on the walls."

I frowned, not really having noticed that myself. I looked at the blank walls, well, accept for my calendar and schedule board, and the clean desk top. I felt suddenly embarrassed, because it hit me all at once why it WAS that bare. I fiddled with my shirt hem and cleared my throat when it unaccountably became dry and tight.

"I guess...," How do you explain that you've lived your entire life moving from place to place, hidy hole to hidy hole, and that being able to do that moving quickly and quietly was as ingrained as peeing standing up? I shrugged as if the question irritated me. I made a dismissive motion at the room. "Just never had time for nick naks and hanging pictures. Besides, the dirt gets into everything here. It's better keeping it all in boxes."

Heero frowned. "What did they take?" I knew he meant my 'employees' and the Preventer agents.

"Computer," I replied and went into the bedroom, making him follow me to get the rest of his answer. "Vidscreen. My music player. My magazines. Some video disks."

Yeah, not much to show for that many years struggling in my L2 scrap lot, but, things weigh you down, make you slow, and that went right back to my street wise youth again. I sighed and sprawled on the futon, sitting back on my elbows, legs hanging off the side.

Heero was looking around my bare bedroom now. "Do you keep things put away?"

Jeez! Wasn't he nosy, I thought, even more irritable now. "Yeah, in the storage closet." I gestured with my chin at the narrow door. I wasn't going to open it and show him my neatly stacked and taped boxes. There were only three and they held the mementos from my life; pictures, an award given to me by Relena Peacecraft herself for trying to save the Earth from her brother, some odds and ends from my life with the Sweepers, my old orphan uniform from Maxwell church, and the 'priest' outfit from the war, and a stuffed cat Hilde had given me for my 'birthday'. Since I hadn't known the exact day, she had picked one for me. April 1. Yeah, April Fool's and all of that. She had a good sense of humor.

I found myself nodding to Heero's question, not really wanting to get into it. That scrap yard was the longest that I had lived anywhere. How do you tell someone that you still couldn't trust that it wasn't all going to change in the blink of an eye, that you still jerked awake and imagined that mobile dolls were destroying everything around you, that your life was steeped so much in the death of everyone you cared about that you thought, of course, it would happen again. It hurt too damned much to put it into words.

Heero picked up two drinks, hit the cold tabs, and leaned to hand me one. I sipped slowly, murmuring my thanks, glad that I had something to look at instead of his expression. He was probably wondering about my sanity.

"Everything I own is in that bag," Heero said suddenly.

I looked up then, in shock, almost crushing my drink. "What?"

Heero shrugged and looked away, his voice small and uncertain. "I stay in Preventer barracks when I'm not on an assignment and I... I've found it best not to own too many things. I travel a great deal."

"Oh," I stared and then came back to myself. I slapped a spot on the futon beside me. "Sit the hell down, Yuy."

He grimaced and managed a very small smile. "I stink. I think I'll shower and change first."

"Okay." I watched him go, understanding how uncomfortable our confessions had made us both. It's not easy letting somebody you care about know that you aren't... quite... normal. On some level, we already did know that. Who could come through our kind of lives and not be hanging from the rafters and howling at the full moon? It was just hard to actually SAY it.

It suddenly occurred to me that I was wasting a perfectly good opportunity to relieve some of our confession awkwardness. So what if it was fraternization and probably a bad idea? So what if it wrapped me and Heero tighter together during a crucial operation? The way things were going, it might be our last time together. I couldn't add, 'until after the operation' and I knew that it was another aspect of the 'it's all going to go to shit sooner or later' syndrome me and Heero seemed to both suffer from. That kind of misery doesn't love company, but we were stuck both being pessimists. Hope could wiggle it's cute nose all it wanted to, but it couldn't win completely against the lessons learned from harsh experience.

The pop of the snap on my jeans was loud as I hurried to get out of them. Tossing my shirt off , I stumbled as I pulled off my shoes and socks as I walked to the bathroom, already sporting the evidence of my strong desire. I knocked once on the wooden door.

I could almost hear Heero's smile as he said, "Come in."

What happened next was a jumble of images, almost like still frames, as I stepped through the door and into the hot water of the shower. Wet, soapy bodies, hot, slippery, mutual hand jobs, devouring kisses, and exploring tongues, mingled with pounding, hot water, the tortured sound of rusted pipes, and our pants and moans.  
I came so hard that I cried out and almost fell to my knees. Heero's hand on me was tight, and almost brutal in its motions, as he pumped every drop out of me while he sucked on my mouth. He wasn't far behind, even though my hands stopped teasing his balls and stroking him during my orgasm. I just squeezed tight, convulsively, as he pumped himself in and out of that tight sheath and came against my belly, moaning my name.

Leaning against Heero and panting, I reached behind him and turned off the water. I squeezed his shoulder as I gave his still stiff erection a few last strokes and then let go. Since I was staring down, it was almost comical watching it bob as I released it. I found myself comparing us. We were both cut, we were both about the same size. Heero's erection tended to stand up straighter, though, and curve back towards his belly when fully aroused, where mine tended to stick out straight. Not bad, i thought, as I smirked. Not bad at all. I stroked us both together, almost feeling like starting something else, but Heero protested, even though he sounded reluctant too. He was right. We were both exhausted. We had to eat. Heero had to at least keep up appearances and have something to show Wu Fei when he returned to the back shack.

We ended up in shorts and tshirts, curled up together on the futon and eating dinner. Heero was punching numbers into his computer with one hand while I detailed inventory from memory. How romantic.... but, it was, sort of. We were together and we were doing important work for my business as well as the sting. There was something that was very appealing about that.

When we finished eating, the leftovers went into the garbage and we ended up sitting and looking at each other. "You should go back now," I told him half heartedly.

"I don't want to," Heero replied.

I punched him hard in the arm and stood up. I turned my back on him, as he grunted in pain, and jammed my hands into my short pockets. I could hear him rubbing his arm. Maybe he understood. It hurt. I didn't really know how to deal with that kind of pain, the pain that twisted me up inside, right at the level of my heart. I needed... I guess it was my way of letting Heero know that I needed space, even if only for a couple of minutes.

"Me too," Heero said quietly, after a long while, and I felt that pain grow. "I'm afraid... I've never felt this way before. I expect... I've never been able to keep things, never had anyone close to me... I had a lot of ... defenses against that... I think I would have... become closer to you during the war if that hadn't been true."

"Had?" I wondered in a husky voice.

"They aren't entirely gone," Heero told me, "but... I had some therapy and I let Quatre show me how to be something other than a soldier. I visited him often."

I was flustered at that revelation. Therapy? Quatre? If he had been living out of a duffel bag, and had never slept a whole night with anyone yet, there wasn't much credit I could give any of that, except this Heero was more open, more... I couldn't imagine the old Heero talking in that soft kind of voice, caring about me so honestly, and touching me with that... I remembered cold looks, harsh, short sentences, death threats, and a punch once or twice.

I wanted the pain to be less. I tried to lighten the mood and, dumbass that I was, I said the wrong thing, "You know, I thought you were a stone cold killer, heterosexual, and in love with Relena during the war. I kind of thought... that you'd be with her, so I never called you or anything... It's hard to imagine you taking 'normal' lessons with Quatre Winner "

"Don't talk about her," Heero asked in a completely different voice. It was seething and... full of hate? I turned to look at him and my impression was confirmed. He was glaring at me. Shit.

My mouth hung open and then I said quickly, "Sorry!" Not sure what I was apologizing for, but knowing that I'd accidentally stepped on one of Heero's 'hair triggers'.

Heero almost panted, he was so angry. I could see his chest rising and falling as he tried to get a grip on himself. He bit out at last, "Not your fault. Just... don't talk about her."

"Okay," I replied quickly, completely stumped. My hands came out of my pockets and I hugged myself, feeling weirdly chilled as I turned away again. "Guess... I guess you should be going..."

My earlier fear of it all going to crap wasn't anything compared to actually seeing it go to crap that quickly. When a hand closed on my braid, I twitched. Hand on braid usually meant someone was about to use it as a handhold to do damage to me. It was hard to stop my immediate reaction. It was Heero's hand. I didn't know if he was mad enough to hurt me, but I wasn't going to kick him in the face... yet... not until he did something first.

Heero was looking at me so intensely, his blue eyes seem to glow. Very slowly, he reeled me in by my braid. I let him, amazed at my own restraint. I found myself being brought back onto the futon and then Heero's hands were on me and pulling me close to him. Our bodies wrapped around each other convulsively then and I just breathed into his collar bone, trying to get over the pain in my chest that had suddenly become unbearable.

It hurt too much. Expecting the worst, waiting for it to happen, yet loving this steely strength, this supple, smooth skinned, warm bundle of possibilities that was Heero Yuy, was almost more than I could handle... yet... I couldn't help clinging by my fingernails, digging frantically for every wisp of reason to endure, to make it happen, to make Heero mine somehow, despite everything.

"Don't doubt me," Heero begged, whispering it fiercely into my ear. "I won't leave you. I won't stop loving you."

I thumped his collarbone with my forehead and gritted out, "I'm too old for fairy stories, Heero, was always too old."

He surprised me by holding me tighter and chuckling, though it sounded very strained, "I'll make you believe in them again. I'll make you believe how much I want this." He paused and then said, "I'm sorry."

"S'okay," I muttered, "We're both going to unload the mental baggage once in awhile. Let's... Let's just try not to let both of us do it together next time, okay?"

He kissed me on the cheek, rough with emotion, as if he needed to stamp some sort of official seal on the promise. "Okay."

We rested together, but Heero did go back to Wu Fei eventually. The hurt and the worry was less, though, as we said goodbye on the porch of my shack. It was strange, but, as I watched him walk away, under the stark light of the lot overhead lights, it was as if he wasn't actually leaving me. It felt... like a cord was attached to him, stretching between us. When I turned back to go into my shack. I didn't feel abandoned or alone.


	16. Pulling

Lawless Hearts  
Part 16:Pulling  
by Kracken

 

I opened my eyes, blinked blearily, and found Heero beside me in the bed, fully clothed and hair hanging in a messy tangle in his sleeping face. I wanted to frown, but I smiled instead. How could I be mad at a guy who went against his very nature, to sleep like the dead until late morning, to come and be with me when I woke up?

I put my hands behind my head and watched him, thinking... thinking about how he had been able to get into bed with me without my killer soldier instincts making hash out of him. I had become used to him in such a short time. The part of me that trusted no one was pissed as hell about that.

"Hey, Heero," I called, finally. We had a lot of work to do and I knew that Wu Fei wasn't sleeping in. Heero's excuse had been to come and get me, I was sure, and I wondered how long he had been gone on that particular 'mission'.

Heero frowned and burrowed into my blankets, muttering something about Gundam mechanics. That made me go very still. If he was 'back in the war' a wrong twitch might get me dead. I had to remember that Heero could bend steel with his hands.

"Heero, we have a lot of scrap to move today," I tried again. "Wu Fei's probably getting very burned right about now."

That made his eyes squint open. "Chang," he grumbled and I knew he was back with me and the scrap yard. "He made me get up before there was light and go over your inventory. " His tone told me how well that had gone over.

"Did he find out that you're not a morning person?" I snickered.

Heero rolled an eye at me. "Something like that."

That made me curious. "Haven't you two ever stayed together on assignments?"

Heero shook his head and slowly pried himself up from the comfort of the bed. I realized the shake was to make himself more alert rather than a negative as he replied, "We do stay together, but..." He looked embarrassed as he ran his fingers through his hair and pushed it back from his eyes. "I either stay awake or go out while he sleeps."

"Why?" I was smiling and not sure I should. It was hard to tell where Heero was going with this.

Heero frowned. "I've never liked sleeping with other people in the room. I feel...."

"Vulnerable?" I supplied and he nodded.

"So, you never have..."

"No."

"Even when we were on Howard's ship, you went off to find your own place to sleep," I remembered. He nodded again. I looked at his impression on my bed. "But, you don't have any trouble sleeping with me?"

Heero's slow smile made my insides go weak. It was warmth and love in the simple curve of his lips. "No trouble at all," he replied. The smile banked a little, though when he added thoughtfully, "You have nightmares, sometimes."

I thought about that as I sat up and padded over to get coffee. I handed him a container, after hitting the heat tabs, and said, "I don't remember them, really. Must be small things... sometimes, they give me a headache..."

"You don't move very much," Heero told me, "but you sound as if you're in pain. I shook at your shoulder and called to you, the few times that it happened, and you went into deeper sleep."

"Oh," I didn't have much to say to that. I sipped at my coffee, feeling like I'd been caught acting like a five year old. Having nightmares seemed kind of childish.

"I wonder..." Heero was going to delve into the past, try to psychoanalyze my head. I put a stop to that.

"Doesn't matter," I shrugged and took a long drink of my coffee. I tossed the empty into the garbage, ignoring my burnt tongue. "Let's get to work."

Heero wasn't stupid. He knew a sidestep when he heard one and he knew enough not to poke at the mental cavities in my head. I'm sure he didn't like his own poked at either.

I hunted for my boots, crouching and feeling under the bed. I found one and pulled it out with a grunt. I saw a problem right away and fingered the parting seam along the instep. I remembered getting stuck on a shard of metal the other day. I hadn't realized how close it had come to taking off my foot.

"Do you have another pair?" Heero wondered as he finished his own coffee and stood up. "You'll get dirt in your boot with a rip like that."

"Yeah," I replied, and then said nothing as I found the mate and then fished out a clean pair of socks.

"Duo?" Heero said, sounding odd. "If you have another pair, why don't you-"

"So'kay," I grunted as I sat on the floor to put on my socks.

"But, if you have another pair-" Heero argued.

"I said it's all right!" I snarled as I jammed the boot on. The seam parted a good four inches, leaving me looking at my sock through the leather. I froze and just stared.

"Duo...."

"They're in the closet," I told him, "Could you... could you get them for me?"

He was very quiet, trying to figure my mood out. Yeah, he could scream about Relena and I could scream about looking in my closet. I wonder if we could get a psychologist at half price if we went in together?

I turned my back, scooting around so that I was looking at the bed. I didn't take my ripped boot off. I kind of had a hunch that I might still need it.

Heero took his time, thinking it all through, and then... I'm not sure it was a sound, or a movement on his part. I suddenly knew that... he knew. Slowly, his steps went to the closet. I cringed. Talk about acting like a five year old.

"The lock," he said, and sounded relieved. "You have a lock on it." I wasn't going to hope that it wasn't opened.

"That's my stuff," I choked out and rubbed at my eyes. "'Course I have a damned lock on it."

"A good one," Heero commented. "I doubt that anyone less than a professional agent could get past it."

"Just... Just get my boots!" I tried to cover my emotions with snarling anger. I doubt if he was fooled.

"It's all right," he said with a sigh of relief after a moment. "The boxes are cut, but I can tell it was looked through carefully. There's some credits here in a jar, they would have taken that..." Meaning my ex squatters.

I bowed my head to my knees. I heard Heero lift out something and then close the door. The lock clicked closed. He walked to my side and then kneeled down, as he put my boots in within my reach, and said, "You couldn't look, could you?"

"No," I growled. "It was bad enough knowing your guys pawed through everything. They didn't actually steal my stuff, just confiscated it. I knew, I knew if those guys had been in there... It would all be gone. It's stupid... I can't really explain... A person shouldn't get that attached to 'stuff'. Nothing's permanent. Nothing's forever.... You know?"

"Duo, I'm sorry," Heero told me and reached out to grip my hand hard. "I know the agents embarrassed you, that they invaded your privacy. They did only take what they thought might be useful."

"Porn magazines?" I couldn't help the viciousness of my response. "My personal photos?"

"We were trying to link you to suspected criminals, " Heero explained. "Photos might identify you with those people. The magazines... one of the agents thought that some of the subjects might be underage. He thought we might be able to use them as further leverage to get you to cooperate."

I'll give Heero points for reflexes. My punch didn't land. He deflected it and I ended up almost nose to nose with him, seething. Maybe I'm not good with mornings either. "Don't you ever...!" I couldn't get the rest out, my outrage making everything turn into white noise as I tried to pant my way through my overwhelming anger and disgust.

"Go find Wu Fei," I told him, biting out each word. "I don't like you or your job right now."

"Duo..."

Didn't he get it? Didn't he see what his self righteous agents had done to me? I guess not, since he was defending their actions, taking their side against me.

We both had grown up biting the bullet, losing our things, losing people close to us, and doing what was necessary without consideration for ourselves. Maybe Heero was still carrying that around. Maybe he couldn't understand that people shouldn't be expected to sacrifice like that, that we weren't all soldiers fighting for the cause of the law. Maybe he couldn't understand how the actions of a few agents, doing something as simple as going through my personal things, could be as painful to me as... I just didn't want to think about it. Maybe I was overacting, but I also knew when I was right and he was ... just damned wrong.

Procedure number one, when you collar a suspect, was go through his shit. I didn't need to be an agent to know that. I could get mad at Heero and feel sorry for myself as much as I wanted, but he wasn't going to be able to change that.... not for me, not for anyone. I didn't think it was too wrong, though, to expect some sympathy about it anyway, for him to get what he and his fellow agents had put me through, and for him to understand that guys like me tended to get smashed under the foot of his pursuit of the bad guys.

"When..." Heero, stopped, cleared his throat, and tried again, "When that particular agent told me what he... What he suspected about your magazines... I was so angry... I wanted to hurt him... When I was with you, looking through your box of things, and I found that photo of me... I felt... amazed, at first, and... hopeful... but then I felt very sick, knowing what you were going through, how we had... embarrassed you. It was the first time that... that I felt that I could have turned in my Preventer badge, that I hated what procedure told us to do."

I stared at him hard and his eyes were soft blue and hurting, afraid that he had royally screwed up. I wanted to stay pissed, wanted to throw every defense up I had, because he had just seen how weak and worthless I could be, too chicken shit to open up a closet door. Those eyes pulled back my verbal punch, though, made me realize that losing it on Heero was only going to hurt me, hurt him, and hurt us, even more.

"Shit!" I growled and couldn't look at anything , just hang my head and glare down at the small space between us, my jaw clenching. When Heero leaned in and gently kissed my forehead, really daring another punch, I half turned away, arms wrapping around my knees and hugging them to my chest hard.

What did I want? I didn't want to be pissed. I didn't want to hurt. I didn't want... I didn't want to lose Heero. The scar on my shoulder itched and I touched it, rubbing it briskly, remembering that Heero had seen me at my finest during the war. Now, he'd seen me at some of my worst. It was up to me to decide what to do now.

"Let's go," I said, still feeling angry and embarrassed, but knowing what I had to do to keep what was more important than my pride and self righteousness. "We have a lot of work to do." And I reached for my spare boots.

I didn't want to give Heero time to argue, time to ask to 'talk it out', though I wasn't even sure that he wanted to. He followed me without an objection, and I hoped he understood a truce when he saw one. Maybe I was too bitter about the whole thing to forgive, but I could leave it behind us, leave it in the past... eventually.

Rubbing my eyes against heat and light, as I came out onto the porch, I heard Wu Fei before I saw him. "Things will go smoother if you cooperate, Maxwell."

I focused on him and blinked. Wu Fei in a simple tshirt and jeans was something I wasn't used to seeing. He looked too normal, when he usually looked unapproachable and exotic in his L5, oriental smocks, or his work suit. It was too much to hope that he wasn't planning on working with me.

"I am cooperating," I growled. "I haven't kicked your asses out yet, have I?"

"It's been almost two hours since Agent Yuy went to collect you." Wu Fei hadn't lost his cool, arrogant, attitude along with his regular clothes.

"My fault," Heero said as he stepped out of my shadow. "I allowed him to keep on sleeping while I had coffee."

A headache was starting right between my eyes. I didn't need Heero telling Wu Fei something like that. I snorted as I moved down the steps and started walking towards my next scrap project. "I have my own timetable, get used to it."

Wu Fei followed me, with Heero following behind him. "I've gone over your inventory Heero's taken thus far," Wu Fei was telling me. "It would be wise to submit your taxes. It will be easier to convince our target that you are desperate enough to break the law, if he can check and see how badly your business is doing."

I stopped and turned. My fist clenched. Why was it easier to keep my fist from caving in his face when I was too willing to let it fly at Heero? I guess I didn't need a psychologist to give me the answer to that one. I cared more about Heero, about what he thought, about what he did that effected me. It was Heero who could hurt me the most. Still, Wu Fei was very close to the line.

"I don't have the money for an accountant," i had to tell him, and didn't that just reinforce what he'd just said, that my business was going down the drain?

"I can do your accounts," Wu Fei told me with a dismissive motion of one hand. "All that I need is a proper inventory."  
"You could just lie," I suggested angrily.

Wu Fei's eyebrow lifted disdainfully. Heero came to his rescue before he could cross that line, the one with a really pissed off Duo Maxwell on the other side. "Everything needs to be legal," Heero told me. "Otherwise, our target could get off on technicalities."

"Like what?" I wondered, only half caring as I turned back to my scrap and my day's project, letting Heero save Wu Fei's ass.

Heero explained. "Even a man like our target is allowed access to the courts. His council will take advantage of any slip up on our part to set him free. He has to come here to buy contraband without the help of falsified documents or misleading activity on our part."

I frowned. "So, it's up to me? A real scrap man has to offer for sale contraband and the target has to come here to buy it without any shady help from you two?"

Heero nodded.

I scoffed. "You know, guys, the people running L2 have been in power for years. They aren't stupid."

"No, they are not," Wu Fei said. "That is why this operation has to be completely believable. That is why we need your help and your contacts."

"Duo Maxwell, suddenly goes bad after having been dragged off by Preventer agents," I shook my head. "I think we already have problems."

They were very quiet, my two 'employees'. I glared at them. "What?"

Heero looked sick, like a man about to dig his own grave. "We filed a report to cover that arrest."

I suddenly wondered if I could punch them both out at the same time. My hands balled tightly into fists. "What did you put in your report?"

"That you were let go after two arresting agents filed reports saying that you had refused the contraband. It says in the report that it was suspected that you had bribed them both."

"Bribery, L2 standard procedure," I grunted and they were both confused as to why I wasn't more upset. I gave them a fierce grin. "If anyone bothers reading that report, they'll think I was a complete bad ass for being able to buy off TWO agents. It'll give me some reputation."

I shoved my bangs out of my eyes and said thoughtfully, "If they believe it, that's is. Guess we'll find out. Best case scenario, they buy the stuff. Worst case scenario, they kill me. Do you guys give nice funerals to stoolies?"

Complete silence came from Wu Fei's corner, but Heero dared to reach out and gently squeeze my elbow. He said, despite the fact that I wouldn't even look at him, "I won't let anyone hurt you."

I blushed to the roots of my hair, knowing Wu Fei was watching that bit of intense intimacy. I pulled away, but not rudely as I said, "I'll hold you to that."


	17. Sweat

Lawless Hearts  
Part 17:Sweat  
by Kracken

 

Wu Fei is a goddam slave driver. I work hard, and I do what has to be done, but my schedule is usually a lot looser, with a lot more rest stops. Every time I hesitated, during that long grueling day of sorting and inventorying scrap, Wu Fei would give me a burning glare that was as good as a cattle prod for getting my ass back to work. To say I was exhausted was an understatement. Was I ready to pass out? Hell yeah! But I wasn't going to fall over before that pole up the ass man.

Heero was a constant by my side, lending me his strength and his advice, as we shifted large loads and raked through smaller ones for anything of value. I stopped being angry with him near noon and saved it all for Wu Fei. I couldn't hold anything against Heero as he sweated, cut, and scraped himself, on scrap, right along side of me. Wu Fei did too, but I wasn't going to be that charitable.

L2 made Wu Fei nervous, I discovered, when I had a whole day to watch my nemesis. His jaw was clenched and his eyes unreadable, for the most part, but when the constant mechanisms of L2 started and stopped, he twitched, flinched, and looked around. If it had been someone else beside Wu Fei, I would have called it fear, but... well, it was Wu Fei! I had to stick him into the, 'concern about sudden decompression' category and leave off the 'scared as shit about,' part. Wu Fei might be worrying about it, but I had the feeling that he would meet it unflinchingly if it ever happened. Probably say something sarcastic and cutting too.

Did we finish? Hell, no, but we had tackled a good chunk of the yard by the time the reflected sun was toned down towards evening. The neater piles of scrap looked very out of place next to the loose piles we still had to sort through.

My hands were aching and stinging from cuts and grappling with metal. My back was on fire from bending over and lifting too heavy loads, my skin was caked with dirt flakes of rust. Even with my hat on, I felt scorched to the bone.

"Enough," Heero announced, maybe finally realizing that the two stubborn men with him were not going to call a halt first. "We'll pick up again tomorrow." Wu Fei gave a tight nod.

"Well, if your tired..." I said with false energy as I chunked a last bit of scrap into an inventoried pile.

"Yes, I am," Heero replied sourly and gave me a sideways look that let me know that I wasn't fooling him one bit.

Wu Fei was probably just as wise to the situation, but he said, "We're losing light. It's too dangerous on these piles to try and use the lot lights instead."

Maybe he was just trying to save face, but he was saving mine too. "Makes sense, " I grunted, giving him that much. I was given a cold eye for my trouble. I decided I needed some alone time right then and there. Fuck Wu Fei. I wanted to go back to my shack, kick back in nothing but my skin, open all the vents, have something cold to drink, and sleep for a week.

"I will need you to come to our shack and discuss our findings," Wu Fei told me in a tone of voice not to be argued with. I really wonder how he can put so much threat into plain words. He just so much as said, 'cooperate or I will bring the full force of the law down on your head.'

Heero, God love him, tried to get me off. "We're all exhausted," he told Wu Fei. "We should rest. Let Duo go to his home for a few hours and then we can meet-"

"Unacceptable," Wu Fei retorted, eyes flashing. "We have our own report to finish before we can rest. There will not be time tomorrow to do this work."

So he was right, and I knew it, but that didn't stop me from getting pissed about it. My fists clenched as I stalked... walked... and then gave up and limped wearily to their shack.

Once inside, I ended up sitting on Heero's cot , with chin on fist, and looking at nothing very hard. Heero sat beside me and then stood again. I grunted when he asked, "Should I get drinks?" He took that as a yes and I was soon popping the cold tab on a little bit of heaven and drinking the cold energy drink down.

Wu Fei was taking out his own computer and sitting on the cot opposite us. He didn't take a drink and I suspected he was trying to show me he was tougher than me, one more time. I was too exhausted for any more of our pissing contest, though, and pretended not to notice.

After twenty minutes of talking numbers, my eyes were trying to close. I kept starting and blinking, losing Wu Fei's side of the conversation more than once. Heero prompted me when that happened, but it really wasn't helping that they were both talking softly. Even Wu Fei's arrogant tone wasn't keeping me alert. At some point, I was given dinner, but what it was, I don't remember... or even if I ate it. I disengaged from the conversation after that and a soft pillow appeared under my head. A tart exchange between Heero and Wu Fei passed over me, something about stress, working too hard, and heat, and then someone, Heero I hope, told me to sleep in a way that made warm breath tickle my ear. The world just went away after that.

Morning found me spooning with Heero on his cot, his nose against my neck and his body draped around me. His soft snore told me he was still deeply in la la land and I was tempted to go back there myself. The sunlight trying to stab my eyes through the ratty curtain told me it was still very early. It was the realization that I had dropped off to sleep, and been tucked in like a child, that had my face burning and my body forcing muscles to make me sit up. I looked automatically for Wu Fei and saw him sleeping not two arms lengths away.

He looked... less like an asshole when he was asleep. Wu Fei's features were soft and relaxed. He was wearing a loose pair of cotton, drawstring pants, and his blanket was wrapped around him as if he were giving it a hug. His hair was undone and it was a disarray of loose, black strands that made him look even younger. It kind of tapped me on the shoulder then, the thought that we were all still so young, despite our experiences, and, though we were never children, we could still have moments like this, where we were tumbled together in one room like sleeping puppies, or boys having some sort of sleep over, and all enmity could be gone, just like that.

I felt suddenly nostalgic, remembering my days on the streets of L2, when I'd had my gang of children. We had huddled together in falling down buildings, finding what peace and protection we could in numbers. You can't sugar coat being a child fending for himself in a war torn space station, but there had been moments in the battle for survival, moments a lot like this one that were... pauses in the struggle that weren't too bad.

I looked back at Heero and saw him frown and shift, still very deeply asleep. I almost wanted that moment to last, to keep still and quiet and not break it, but I knew better. Wu Fei would wake up and those dark eyes would burn me alive again and Heero would wake up and want things from me emotionally and physically, while inserting himself between Wu Fei and me. Just like last night, I suddenly wanted my space, my alone time, even though, not very far down deep, I only wanted to stay in Heero's arms. The mind can be a very fucked up thing.

We're all Gundam pilots, trained like no one has ever been trained before. Sneaking out on my comrades was easy, especially my sleep like the dead lover. I crept out of the shack and made my way, under the light of the reflectors, to my own shack, hands in pockets and head bent in an attempt to ignore that it was daytime. I was stopped almost on the front step by the sound of my back gate creaking open.

I squinted that way and saw a man come in tentatively, not sure of his welcome and obviously not comfortable around the scrap lot. I smiled and forgot about being tired, hungry, and wanting alone time. I smelled an easy mark a mile away. I didn't let on, though, as I scratched at my dirty scalp, mopped at my face with my bandana, and made a slow, almost irritable path, to the man.

"Morning," I said, putting a bit of belligerence in my tone. "Early to be out."

The man was tall and thin, with a scruff of red hair on his head and dark eyes he kept blinking myopically. His nose was a beak and he had a scar running under his bottom lip. Shrapnel, I identified.

"Benjamin Burns," the man introduced himself and didn't reach out for a handshake. I didn't insist on one, just scrubbed my hands absently with my bandana as if I was making sure I was ready in case he offered one later.

"Duo Maxwell," I returned politely. "This is my lot."

My mind was making alarm siren sounds. Things were not right and I wasn't sure I liked what my impressions were adding up to. I nixed the easy mark impression and settled for snake that might, or might not, have teeth. He was a flunky and I smelled bureaucrat and government on him. His kind didn't come to scrap lots looking for engine parts.

The man was wearing a casual outfit, but it was creased just right and pristine. I smelled an expensive after shave on him and his hair was stylish, not a haphazard buzz cut as I had at first thought.

"My client wished me to contact you and to give you his card," Burns announced as if it were a great honor. He handed me a card with a penthouse address in the finest section of L2. I looked suitably confused. Hell, I WAS confused.

"Is he interested in particular parts?" I wondered. "I'm a small operation, but I can get almost anything you want."

The man eyed me as if I were stupid. "Your reputation in that regard is known and, also, your current record. My client is always ready to tap talent when he sees it. Your handling of your arrest by Preventer agents impressed him."

My eyebrows went up to my hairline. I looked down at the card. I recognized the name, but continued to look clueless. "How's he know about that?"

The man gave me a superior smile. "We have friends in high places that keep us informed."

If I had been his boss, I would have drilled him between the eyes for giving away that kind of information. I grunted and changed my expression to pissed off. "That's supposed to be classified."

"Not for my client," Burns retorted almost primly. He gave my lot a severe look and a sniff. "If you want to improve your position in life, I suggest that you take advantage of his offer."

I stuffed the card into my hip pocket with a shrug. "I don't know what he's offering, but I have my own business right here. I'm not looking for anything else."

The man chuckled as he turned to go back out of my lot. "Ah, yes, but it's your 'business' he wants to discuss."

"Sorry," I told him strongly. "Tell him not to hold his breath."

The man left and I closed the gate behind him. Slowly, I walked to my shack, thinking. Being an ex gundam pilot, I've had my share of 'offers', legal and otherwise. There wasn't any way to tell if this 'client' was someone Wu Fei and Heero wanted to arrest, or what the man wanted with me. It was always best to never look interested or eager until you knew where you stood.

Once in my own home, I managed to put away my box of belongings that had been confiscated by the Preventers. I had a long time to reassure myself that my few possessions were still all there. It was a relief to finger through them, some tension, that I hadn't realized I was feeling, letting go at last as I reached the bottom and found the faded pictures of Father Maxwell and Sister Helen on a donation flyer, with a brief history of the Maxwell church and it's mission to help the needy. I'd found it long after I'd joined Dr. G and his sweepers. It had been in a forgotten stack of junk mail, earmarked for the incinerator, but never taken there. One of my tasks as the newbie in the group had been to clean up. I remember sitting for a long time in disbelief, clutching the simple black and white, cheaply printed flyer. When Dr. G found me, he had been sympathetic. That man could be as cold as a knife edge, but he'd had a fondness for me that had come through in a rough, fatherly fashion, and that had been one of those moments when he had draped an arm over my shoulders and listened while I had told him that dark chapter in my past and cried...

I closed up my boxes and locked the closet door. I was going to get a better lock, one that was Preventer proof. The thought of strangers pawing through my things still set my teeth on edge. The thought of those strange hands touching that flyer, those few photos I had of my war years, and the meager mementos of my life, was a violation I didn't want to experience again.

I took a shower and washed my hair out, watching dirt, rust, and bits of the previous day go down the drain as the pipes chugged in my ears. Finished, I took my time drying, shaving, brushing my teeth, and basically indulging the hell out of myself. I needed it. I felt too stressed, too ready to lash out in an ugly way.

Sifting through the clothes on the floor, I discovered that nothing smelled clean except a shirt of Heero's tossed over the top of the fridge. I pulled it on, a sky blue thing with a white collar, and smelled his light scent. I wrinkled my nose and smiled as I made coffee, stretched out on my bed, and kicked back in a pair of ragged shorts with no underwear.

When Heero knocked politely and then came in to my shouted, "Okay!" I'd had enough time to myself to not think of it as an invasion. Heero smiled at me, but I could see a faint look of worry as he stood in the doorway of my bedroom, hands in his back pockets and hair all messy and in his sleepy face.

"Wu Fei force you to get up?" I wondered with a smirk.

Heero grunted. "The man is a sadist in the morning."

"I think he's called, 'normal', " I joked. "You are supposed to get up before noon."

"He exercises," Heero complained. "And jogs."

"The horror," I laughed. I patted the bed as I sat up and he looked pleased that he was welcome. It made me think about how he must have felt, waking up and finding me gone. He must have worried about my mood.

Heero served himself some coffee first and then settled next to me. I reached out and briskly straightened his hair with my fingers, like a rake. It didn't do much good, but it stopped his hair from sticking straight up in places. He grimaced and sipped at his coffee.

I didn't tell him about my 'customer'. I was still unsure about it. Maybe he wasn't buying scrap, but he had made me a business offer. That made him 'one of mine' by default. Whether he was someone who truly deserved to be handed over to Wu Fei and Heero's tender mercies, was something I wanted to find out for myself.

"Shower?" I wondered.

"Last night," Heero replied between sips. He pulled at his shirt, the one I was wearing. "That was my last semi clean one."

"I know. Thanks." I grinned at him, unapologetic. "We'll have to send WU Fei to the cleaners today while we work."

Heero frowned, probably trying to bring up the image of Wu Fei doing laundry in a public setting. "Why Wu Fei?"

"Me and you work better together," I told him. "Less infighting. Besides, he's supposed to be the lazy relative, remember? He needs to wander around and look lazy."

"Doing laundry is lazy?" Heero wondered.

"It is when a machine does it for you and all you have to do is kick back at the nearest watering hole until it's done," I told him. "We'll tell him it's surveillance, or something. Tell him he needs to listen to what the locals are saying about our set up, whether they're buying it or not."

Heero finished his coffee, set aside the container, and then shifted to look at me. "Did you eat?"

I raised an eyebrow. "I was about to."

"Good," Heero grunted and reached out to get the meals himself.

"Should I start your tab now?" I wondered, a bit annoyed by his 'mothering'. "You keep eating my food."

He gave me a sideways look, "I don't have the pride you do. I don't mind freeloading."

It was a joke and he wasn't sure how well it was going to play, I could tell. There was a question in it, too. If I insisted he pay me back, that was going to say a whole hell of a lot about our relationship. Another damned step. Next we would be buying freakin' wedding rings. That though made me scowl as I said, "Go ahead! Why not eat me out of house and home?"

Sure I sounded like a shit, but Heero got it. His face glowed as he handed me my meal. I pretended not to notice as I concentrated on eating. Size 71/2 ring size and no freakin' diamonds, okay?


	18. Dancing

Lawless Hearts  
Part 18:Dancing  
by Kracken

 

Duo Maxwell time was over. With a sigh, I bagged all of our clothes in my old military duffel, and slung it over my shoulder as Heero and I went to the back shack to find Wu Fei. I thought Wu Fei type of exercise would include katas or some equally highbrowed oriental regimen. I was surprised to find him outside kick boxing in just a loose pair of drawstring, black pants, with a shadow partner. He was making some moves that I didn't think could be called anything other than low blow and dirty.

"Street fighting," I said appreciatively. "Now that's something I'm good at."

"You've kept up with your training?" Wu Fei replied in a doubtful tone as he stopped and faced us. He was sweating. It was beading and making small tracks down his skin. His hair was drawn back but it was winning the battle against his hair tie, coming out in dark strands that hung in his face.

"Don't have to train," I said with a grin. "I'm a natural."

Wu Fei suddenly got that look, the one of a teacher who thought a student needed an abject lesson. "If you would care to show me some of your moves, I would appreciate having a live partner to practice with."

That sounded so nice, but I could feel the trap. I grinned wider as I tossed my duffel at his feet. "No time, Wu-man! We have to work and you need to go out and do laundry." I got the scowl I was expecting and added. "It will give you a chance to cement your cover and scope out the locals. We need to know whether they're buying this or we're wasting our time."

Wu Fei snorted and pushed his hair out of his eyes. He didn't deigned to look disappointed or annoyed to be told to do laundry. He silently exchanged a look with Heero and then he bent and picked up the duffel. "I will add my things to this," he said."Expect me back in one hour."

In your dreams, I laughed silently to myself, knowing what kind of mess the laundry was and what a time consuming chore it was, which is why I avoided it until I couldn't any longer. I motioned to Heero and he followed me to the scrap piles.

"He spent most of the night doing your taxes and inventory,' Heero said suddenly at my shoulder. "He is arrogant... and insufferable at the best of times... but he isn't as bad as you think he is. If he was, he wouldn't be my partner."

"He wanted to kick my ass back there, and you know it," I growled as I started sorting a pile by hand. I hissed as I cut my finger, the first wound of the day.

"You were asking for it," Heero shot back and then snorted, "A natural."

"That's what Dr. G called me," I told him."And I am."

I looked back in time to see the light in his eyes and his small smile and I swore. Men, testosterone, and that ever present 'cave man' instinct that overpowered sense; Heero was itching to see if I was telling the truth too, only I was less eager to prove myself with a man who could bend prison bars and blow himself up and live to fight another day.

I grabbed Heero by the back of the neck and pressed my forehead against his. "Stop it! We have a lot of work to do." I met his blue eyes and then let him go and turned to go back to work. After a moment's hesitation, he joined me.

We worked under the hot glare of the reflected lights. Wu Fei didn't return after an hour. Heero stopped several times and looked towards the back gate. I reassured him, without straightening from a part that I was trying to dislodge, "It takes a long time. Washing clothes around here is an all day event."

Heero made a 'hmm' sound and then he was suddenly bending over me, chest against my back, and an obvious hard on pressing against my ass. He kissed the sweaty nape of my neck and made a suggestive motion.

"Dream on," I grunted irritably.

He froze and then whispered in my ear. "Either way."

I craned my neck to look at him. I'd taken him down to my tonsils and licked him all over, but that last step 'either way' I wasn't ready for. It was like a last bastian against complete commitment, and that independent part of me, my street kid soul, wasn't going to let go of it. I was saved from turning him down by Wu Fei suddenly saying beside us, "You would get more leverage on the part if you attempted to lift it from the opposite side, Yuy."

Heero straightened abruptly and the motion sent me head first into the scrap. I banged my head and cut my cheek as I flailed to get my balance back. Crouched and holding my face, Heero was holding onto me and shouting, "Dammit, Chang!"

"I could have been an enemy," Wu Fei replied cooly, arms crossed over his chest.

"Are you all right, Duo?" Heero demanded anxiously.

I shook him off and stood up, glaring at Wu Fei. "Where the hell is the laundry?"

"I spoke to several people there and they were kind enough to offer their assistance in doing the wash for me," Wu Fei replied with a lifted, arrogant eyebrow.

"Idiot!" I shouted at him. "They're stealing it!" I ran towards the back gate, already sure who the culprits were.

I heard Heero say behind me, to Wu Fei, "I suppose this will cement your reputation as my lazy relative."

Running on L2 was easy on the one hand, gravity was less than it was on Earth. On the other hand, the heat was killer and the dust quickly coated lungs and made you cough them up. I started coughing as I thundered into the market and headed for a group of ramshackle huts. I had started sweating as soon as I had left my lot. I looked wild and dangerous when I kicked in the door of one hut and discovered the two men I knew hunched over my laundry. It was spilled over a plastic table and they were picking through it in disgust at the dirt and smell.

"Hey, Duo!" One called as if we were old friends, the both of them dissembling instantly, "Look what that no good freeloader of yours left at the laundry. We were just about to bring it back to you... just making sure it belonged to you is all..."

I felt insulted. Did he really think I was THAT stupid?

"I have credit at the laundry," I snarled at them, "So you can stop looking for loose credits."

The taller of the two had an edge to him. Like a cornered rat, I knew he would fight if he felt threatened. The little, fat guy was smarter, he was already backing towards another exit, trying to hide behind his companion.

Did I want to wipe the floor with them? Hell ,yes! They had twisted the knife in a day that was already starting badly. I was nothing if not fair, though. There were rules on L2, just not legal ones. One of them was, 'Always take advantage of suckers.'Wu Fei had qualified for that one easily. It wasn't as if they had rolled him in an alley for his clothes, they had just taken what he'd left behind and hoped for some beer money. I might even have gotten the clothes back... eventually... All right, so that was wishful thinking, but I really didn't want to fight over clothes. I decided on relaxing my fighting stance and sighing.

"Just give me back my damn clothes..."

The tall guy was someone I knew did a lot of petty theft. He was a small fish, pretty harmless, as I said, but willing to fight if he had to. If he didn't, it was all the better. He was quick to paste on a grin.

"Suuure! Sure, thing, Duo!" He grabbed my clothes and began shoving them back in the duffel. I saw underwear that weren't mine and had a stray thought that wondered if they were Wu Fei's. It made me shudder. I really didn't want his underwear mixing with mine.

"Toss it here," I commanded. Tall guy lobbed the duffel and I caught it and slung the strap over one shoulder, keeping my hands free. Short and fat blinked at me, hopeful that they were going to get away scott free. I skewered them with my eyes. "Do you actually know who I am, or do you just know my name?"

They exchanged looks. "Uh..." Tall guy swallowed hard and then managed, "Gundam pilot, right?"

"I know you discounted that because I seem like such a nice guy," I told them, "But nobody messes with my stuff. Step on my toes, or the toes of my men again, and I'll show you what a Gundam pilot is like when he gets really pissed... got that?"

They nodded in unison. I glared hard and then turned on my heel and stalked out. I almost fell through a rotten board on their porch, staggered, and recovered, ruining my dramatic exit. Once out of sight, I stopped and dropped the duffel at me feet, sighing in disgust.

"Orders?" Heero said at my elbow.

I jerked and turned. "Stop sneaking up on me!"

He smiled. "Why don't you do the laundry and let Wu Fei and I do the hard work today? You can consider it his punishment."

"Nobody does my work," I grumbled.

"It's not, it's his work," Heero corrected me. "He is your hired hand, just as I am."He looked around and saw only a few people not in hearing distance. He looked like he wanted to reach out to the cut on my face. He winced . "I'm sorry that happened."

"Well, it probably helped me get our laundry back. Made me look crazy," I said as I touched the cut gingerly.

"You need help doing that?" Heero asked with a chuckle.

I growled in reply, "Okay, for that, you can work along side Wu Fei."

"As long as I get to see you later?" His tone wasn't begging, just hopeful.

I decided to be a hard ass. "Maybe."

"I can make it worth your while," Heero suggested, giving me a very hungry look. His blue eyes sparkled. "We can finish what we started earlier."

"You can hope," I told him flippantly as I shouldered the duffel and turned away.

"I will," he promised.

I looked over my shoulder at him. Screw everyone. I turned, grabbed him by the front of his shirt, pulled him in, and gave him a harsh kiss. Shoving him back just as quickly, I nodded, once, winked to show him he was forgiven, and headed for the laundry. I heard him laugh behind me.

It was nice kicking back in the laundry, watching the red light pulse on my washing box as it churned my clothes, giving them a sonic bath. It was one machine in a long line of them and the place was full of customers. It had taken me an hour of standing in line to get my turn at a machine. By that time, I was ready to get out of there. I had protection against theft though, so I didn't mind leaving my clothes behind. I had a chit with my washing box number and I couldn't open the thing without it. Think stealing a scrap man's clothes is worth the bother? Some people would steal the gum off the bottom of your shoe, and sell it back to you at fifty percent markup. Everything was fair game. I think, too, that some people just took things for the hell of it... because they could.... or for beer change, like those two losers I scared the shit out of.

I decided on the nearest bar. It used to be a favorite of mine, back in the day... well, when I'd been less caring about what happened to me. It was small, had that corner bar atmosphere that was both cheap and slightly personalized. The bald guy behind the counter was doing that classic wiping up with a rag and the waitress was the stereotypical blowsy girl with her hair in a bun; the one who was usually only doing it to get enough money to blow town. A sweet talking drunk would come in one day, sweep her off her feet, and stick her with three babies, and a debt, before leaving her for greener pastures... Uhm, okay, so, to sum up, it was a plain, basic bar. At night, they had music, dim lights, and the pickup atmosphere. During the day, it was boring, lighted, and a place for people to stop off for a quick drink.

The bartender knew me. I felt slightly embarrassed, wondering if he knew some of the things I'd done out behind his place where it was nice and dark and private... he probably did. I doubt I was the first, or the last, to think of it. He did know that I didn't drink any longer, except for social toasts and victory celebrations. Since I hadn't had a chance for either of those occasions, I doubt he knew that much. He cleaned a glass and looked over it at me. He couldn't stop me from drinking, he'd lose his job, but he was a good guy and let me know, pretty clearly by his expression, that he didn't approve of my presence there.

"Non- alcoholic beer," I ordered as I slid onto a stool at the bar. It creaked under even my light weight.

"I have soda," the man offered with a grimace."Out back. It's cold."

I smiled as I leaned on my hand and toyed with a water droplet on the plastic bar with a finger. "Nope! I'm in the mood for a green tasting, synthetic, chemical in a frosty glass."

The man humphed. "It'll warp your genes."

I smirked. "Ah, but I won't be having any children, so I don't have to worry about it, do I?"

That got me a smile as the man pulled out a cold mug and put a long neck of something green beside it. It was loosely called 'beer', but it could let you pretend to knock one back. Sometimes, it was just the atmosphere and the ritual that was important, not the actual beer buzz and the taste.

I poured the drink myself and then took a slow, appreciative sip. The man stared at me. I wiped my mouth and made a satisfied sound. "Yep, pure crap!"

He laughed and then went away to do some other business. That left me with two customers and the bar girl. I knew one man for the town drunk. He was always in that same corner, nursing something strong and looking like death warmed over. It was good to have a reminder like that to keep a man clean. The other man was no one I knew. He glanced at me and then glanced away. I didn't remember seeing him when I first came in. He must have come in afterward. He was nondescript, in a simple button up shirt and casual pants. I could tell he was from the city... though it was more a crazy sixth sense instinct than anything he was outwardly showing. He had that aura of nervousness to him that I always associated with well off people walking through a slum. That man who had wanted me to meet his boss, had felt the same way. You don't survive being a street child and a soldier by not staying alert. My street sense raised it's hackles.

I didn't let my suspicion show. I kept relaxed, leaning an elbow back on the bar while I sipped at my mug and finished my survey of the room. The bar girl caught my eye and approached. She gave me a sympathetic smile. I fished mentally for her name. Candy.

"Hey, Candy," I greeted.

"Duo,"she replied as she fiddled with her hand sized order pad and stuck a few credits tip in her pocket. I boldly reached out and put a few of my own there as well. She smiled, a bit flustered, but was pleased. That move can go either way, but I knew, if she liked it, just how much she liked me and what kind of questions I could ask her. When she leaned towards me to look at my cut face, her breasts were clear to my view as her blouse dipped. It was obvious and contrived. I think that she liked me a lot more than I was hoping for.

"Did HE do this?" she asked in outrage.

She meant Heero. I discounted Wu Fei as soon as I saw her nipples and knew that her next step was to insinuate herself between me and my 'abusive lover'. I was, sadly, not disappointed.

"You should get rid of that man and that arrogant s.o.b. relative of his," she growled as she took a bar rag, with god's knew what on it, and dabbed at my cut."You need someone who will treat you right. You're a good man. You're nice. Nobody should hurt you like that."

Next came, 'I would never hurt you.', followed by, 'why don't you give me a call and we'll talk some more? Here's my number.'I could see her hand beginning to write her phone number on her pad, so I cut that off as quickly as I could.

"So... you know all about what's going on with me?" I asked.

"Who doesn't!" she exclaimed and then put a hand to her mouth, looking ashamed. "Oh! I'm so sorry! You probably didn't want to hear that!" She patted my shoulder. "It's all right. People have nothing better to do than talk and you are one of us. We care about you."

Like hell, I thought with a silent snort. Maybe a few, but most people were looking for weaknesses to bring me and my business down, or to exploit me into getting a better deal on scrap. Golden hearts were in short supply in the dirty, scrabble, world of L2. I looked down into my beer and sat up straighter, trying to look young and forlorn. I asked quietly, "What are they saying?"

She looked sorry for me. She told me, reluctantly, "Oh, just that you aren't doing so well, that the only help you could get was taking on a man in your yard and paying for it in your bed, and that you can't stand up and kick that man and his relative to the curb, because you can't do without him."

She looked at me anxiously. I hoped that I didn't look as angry as I felt. I hadn't been expecting the 'paying for my help in bed' part. "Nice," was all I allowed myself to say.

"Don't mind them!" she told me and sidled up close to me. She said breathily as she slipped her phone number into my hand, "I need to get back to work, but if you need to talk, or just have a friend, call me, okay?"

Damn! I'd let her get that one out. She was good. I pushed the scrap of paper into my pocket and looked grateful. "Thank you, I appreciate that... a lot."

She smiled, satisfied that she had scored, and went away to check on the drunk. I saw the other man looking at me out of the corner of my eye as I finished my drink, paid my tab, and took a slow walk out of the place.

I didn't turn to look, to see if I was followed. I kept walking back to the laundry. I waited until I passed a food vendor. I smiled at the blonde, young man tending the counter. He was one of a half dozen kids of the owner and, if he wasn't my friend, he was at least not my enemy. I thought I could trust him enough to ask, as he handed me a soda and a piece of wrapped fried, "Is there a man behind me; medium height, late middle age, dark hair, glasses, cream polo shirt, light blue pants-"

"With leather dress shoes, a designer watch, and a glock?" he asked, not looking.

"Glock?" I wondered with a start.

"He has a holster under one arm. You can see the outline, " he replied with an innocent smile."His eyes are on you and I can tell he's a killer. Better run, scrapman."

I snorted as I motioned at myself with my food. "This scrapman, don't run from nobody, got that?"

"Your funeral," the boy replied, looking at me as if I were a nut.

I grunted and turned away. I walked even slower; looking in the stalls lining the row and talking to a few people I knew. The girls called out to me. I smiled and only played the game briefly. One told me I was no fun since I landed a boyfriend. How true that was, I thought, though I wasn't going to get into some of the better aspects of the relationship with her.

I finished my food, and collected my finished clothes from the laundry. Shoving them into my duffel without folding them, I slung it over one shoulder and trudged back to my lot. There was a stretch that would be empty of people, that would leave me vulnerable, right before I reached my gate. When I looked back at last, right before I reached that point and passed beyond the bustle of the market, I found my tail gone. I blinked, formed a few theories that I didn't like, and then swore, realizing that my relaxing time had been ruined by my mystery man.

I made a decision right then and there. I backtracked to the market, made some purchases, and then returned to my lot. Wu Fei and Heero were working side by side, almost done with a pile of scrap. I put away my laundry and supplies, put on my hat, and joined them. Wu Fei said something about my lateness, but I was too lost in thought to get into it.

At the end of the day, I went to my shack without a word. If Wu Fei wanted another late night session with the books, I didn't give him the chance to suggest it. I left while they were still stacking the last of the scrap. Sitting on my bed, the vents wide open and my supplies next to me. I sipped on a cold drink and waited.

I didn't have to wait long. Heero knocked, I called for him to come in, and he came to sit beside me on the bed. "Did something happen?" he asked. "You were so quiet."

"Heero," I asked, almost angrily. "Are there Preventer agents in the market?"

Heero looked guilty and he had trouble meeting my eyes. "Yes," he admitted quietly.

"Why?" I demanded. "One of them was tailing me today."

"They wanted us to have backup," Heero told me. "This situation is unconventional. It's making headquarters nervous. They want to make certain there are no mistakes."

"I wasn't the only one who noticed," I growled angrily. "They can blow our cover just by being here!"

Heero nodded. "I told them that, but I was over ruled."

"By Wu Fei?" I sneered.

"He was convincing when he suggested the surveillance," Heero admitted.

I was quiet, wondering if one of these mistakes, one of these over zealous idiot Preventers, was going to get me killed. I searched Heero's face, wanting to blame him, wanting to chew the hell out of someone's ass... but I knew it wasn't Heero. I knew he shouldn't get that kind of treatment from me. I was just damned tired of it all and I wanted something good to come out of the day. Being angry and playing the blame game could wait for when I faced Wu Fei in the morning.

I dumped the contents of my bag on the bed between us. Candy, small cakes, and soda containers filled the bed. Heero's eyes lit up, just as I knew they would.

"I bet Wu Fei isn't letting you indulge yourself, am I right?" I told him. "You're probably eating tofu and rice balls."

"Close," he replied with a grimace and then smiled.

Heero's dark eyes asked a question. I answered by tilting my chin, just a hair's breath, to the right. He kissed me. After everything that had happened that day, I suppose it sounds stupid to say that such a simple contact could make it all better... but it did. He leaned into the kiss and I found myself flat on my back. Among pixie sticks and cream cakes, we made slow , but satisfying love to one another. It was hot, but... well, loving, at the same time. We didn't go 'all the way' but that didn't matter. His mouth was a warmth sheath on me and his hands were sure and arousing as they explored and made me moan. I gave as good as I got and the taste of him coming on my tongue, the sound of him groaning in climax, the feel of him pulsing and heated in my arms, washed away stress and worry. How easily that man had become my world. What else could you call it when nothing else mattered when we were together, when I felt so together and whole? It didn't even sound sappy when I nuzzled his neck and said, "Love you."

His sigh was relieved and happy. I rose above him and poured some of the snacks onto his chest. "You squished them, you eat them."

"That is your butt mark, I'm sure of it," he told me with fake seriousness as he held up a squished ho ho.

I looked put upon and took it from him. "I'll guess we'll share then."

As I opened the wrapper, I caught him looking at me with a depth of feeling that was almost overwhelming. He said, with passion, "I love you, too."

I stared back. We both blushed in the next instant. It was something we wanted to say, yeah, but what the hell do you do after you say something like that? We'd already had the sex. "If you loved me," my flippant side was suddenly in control and saying, "You'll eat this butt squished ho ho and give me the good one."

Heero's mouth opened and I shoved it in. Seeing Heero with a mouth stuffed with ho ho made me nearly die laughing, but he took it good-naturedly and managed to chew and swallow the thing without choking to death. The awkward moment passed and we regained safe ground again. One day, we were going to figure out how to do the romantic stuff, but today wasn't it.


	19. Belling the Dragon

Lawless Hearts  
Part 19:Belling the Dragon  
by Kracken

 

"Chang Wu Fei, I need to talk to you," I said as I approached the man.

Dressed only in a loose pair of white pants, Wu Fei finished a martial arts move and then stood and regarded me with an arrogant eye. "Awake before eight? It must be important."

He didn't respect me. I suddenly knew that nothing I could say was going to carry any weight with him as long as that was true. I went almost toe to toe with him and demanded, "Okay, give me your list." It was early, too damned early, and the 'god of the weather controls' had decided on a blistering hot morning. My temper had been simmering as soon as I had left the coolness of my shack and Heero sleeping in my bed.

"List?" Wu Fei sized me up; messed up hair in a half braid, wrinkled blue t-shirt, and blue jeans."I suppose you are speaking of my assessment of you as a person... or would you like my assessment of your ability to perform as an agent on this assignment?"

He was so cool, standing there half dressed, every hair in place, posture perfect. He wasn't taller than I was, at least not by much, but the way he held himself, he seemed much larger and intimidating. When you live on the streets, like I had, you get used to that look, the one that says you aren't as good as everyone else. Maybe I wasn't immune to it, but I could shrug it off.

"Both," I dared.

He raised a dark eyebrow and crossed arms over his bare chest. "All right. It is clear that you think very little of the law. You chose to live in an area that is filled with like minded individuals. You were caught on the verge of selling military contraband. Your past begins on the street and leads to service on a sweeper ship, known for their criminal activities stealing ships for salvage. I will credit you, that you deviated from that path to become a Gundam Pilot and a war hero, but that credit is small considering that, afterward, you returned to your previous life of living among criminal elements. My lack of confidence in your ability to perform as an agent, stems from the latter. It is clear that you haven't kept up your training and that you don't honor the laws that we are trying to enforce. You made it clear that you joining us, not to save lives by taking a known weapons contraband dealer off the street, but because you have a dislike for the leaders of L2. This lack of morality leads me to conclude that, when things become dangerous, you will either give away our operation or run. There is also the matter of your fraternization with Yuy. Normal procedures dictate that I should take him out of the field at once, and you as well. Unfortunately, the circumstances make that impossible. I require Yuy's expertise. I require your position here as a scrap dealer. I have confidence that Yuy will perform when called upon to do his duty as it pertains to this operation. I am not as certain that he will do his duty where it concerns you. Because of this, I have asked for undercover backup. They will be close by to deal with you if you should decide to betray us."

Maybe he expected me to blow up, throw a fist at him, or at least shout a cuss word. Instead, I grunted. After all, though it was blunt, stark , and not very pretty.... Wu Fei hadn't said a damned thing that wasn't right... well, except one thing. I wanted to give myself an award for keeping my temper as I replied evenly, "I would never, NEVER, betray you. I might decide against finishing it if it looks like my skin is on the line, but I've never sold anyone out, and I never will."

Wu Fei regarded me coldly, as if his dark eyes could bore a hole straight down to my soul. I felt flayed and opened up, laid bare by that appraisal. I met it square on, though, and never flinched.

Wu Fei suddenly took up a fighting stance. "I need to know your level of skill. A few brief passes."

I blinked stupidly. I felt like I'd passed a test with an A+, when I thought I was getting a D-.I looked at him, my eyes automatically sizing him up and putting him in the master category. A few passes. I didn't think anything was wrong with that. I wasn't angry like the last time. I didn't have to be afraid of it turning into something ugly. A few passes.... "Okay."

I was a natural. I had this sense of things. It's hard to explain. I knew just how things, and people, balanced, just where they had weaknesses and strengths. Looking at Wu Fei, I noticed him favoring his left foot very, very slightly and I noticed a shoulder that was slower to move than the other one, probably both from working on the scrap piles the previous day. It was easy to step forward and counter Wu Fei's rapid moves. When I stepped back again, he was looking surprised.

"Told you," I said flippantly. "I don't need to practice."

I expected him to ask for more passes. I expected him to get annoyed. That damned man never did what I expected him too. He relaxed and made a little grunt.

"I will meditate now," Wu Fei informed me. "When I am done, meet me by the last scrap pile and we will finish it. Then I will be able to accurately complete your accounts and judge how to proceed."

I made face. "That's about an hour, I suppose. Waking Heero up this early..."

Wu Fei actually relaxed enough to grimace. "Yes, I am aware of that. Sometimes, I think it was a mistake to insist he stop taking medication for that."

I started. "You told him to stop?"

"Those types of drugs can have long term effects." Wu Fei began to turn away, but he said, over his shoulder, "Now that you are together, I will expect you to take their place."

He was giving me something and I wasn't sure why. I couldn't help being greedy and I wondered if I had gone too far when I asked, "Are you pissed, that Heero wants to be with me?"

Wu Fei snorted. "It was inevitable,"he told me, "The man keeps your picture on his desk, by his bunk in the Preventer barracks, and in his wallet...When I saw that you also had a photo of him, I concluded that only your mutual stubbornness, lack of self esteem, and independence, had been keeping you apart. Being suddenly confronted with each other, and forced to join in a mission together, it was inevitable that you both discover that you have ... a mutual attraction."

I bristled, "Lack of self esteem?"

Wu Fei turned back to give me an impatient look as he said, "It was obvious during the war that you were dedicated to the cause and that you were properly aware that Heero Yuy was as well and that he was..."

"Out of my class?" I offered with a glare.

Wu Fei gave a short nod and then looked puzzled. "For some strange reason, Heero Yuy was of the same mind about himself concerning his unworthiness to be with you. This attitude persisted after the war."

Well, well, Wu Fei the psychologist.... "Sounds like you thought about this for a long time."

He raised an eyebrow. "Yuy and I are partners. We are friends. His well being is a concern of mine. "

"Friends. " I grunted, thinking about that, trying to imagine them kicking back with a beer and confiding in one another. The image just wouldn't come.

Wu Fei became suddenly intense. "As his friend, I must insist that you don't interfere with his execution of this mission. Your... relationship, endangers him."

"You aren't going to insist that we stay separate?" I wondered, "That we stop-"

"I don't ask the wind to stop blowing," Wu Fei told me acidly. "You've proven that you have some honor, now prove to me that you have sense and that you understand how Yuy's feeling for you can cause him to make mistakes."

"I do understand that!" I retorted, "I'm not stupid, Wu Fei. " And then as his words sunk in. "I proved that I have honor? When was that?"

Wu Fei snorted and turned away again. "You defeated my moves earlier, yet you didn't take advantage and harm me."

I hadn't even considered hurting him, and I could have. I rubbed at the back of my neck and felt sheepish. By the time I realized that I hadn't tore into him about the undercover agents, he was inside his shack and closing the door. Later, I decided. We had managed to find a bit of peaceful ground. I didn't want to piss on it with an argument just then.

I walked back to my shack, yawning, wondering how I was going to wake up Heero when all I wanted to do was curl up beside him and got to bed again. I cocked an eye at the bright reflectors overhead and sighed. I pumped myself up with the knowledge that we were on the last pile of scrap, that we had reached the light at the end of the tunnel, and that, maybe, my business was about to get straightened out. Hope perched on my shoulder, patting me and grinning happily as it told me how my business was going to be saved, but a smaller demon, with a sharp, hot spike, was jabbing my pride and letting me know that Chang Wu Fei and his organization and accounting skills, were going to be mainly responsible for it. I wanted to feel less like a loser, really I did, and it wasn't happening.

I found Heero still sleeping, stretched out on his stomach, wearing only a pair of shorts. His face was hidden from me, turned away from the light coming through the curtains. I had a nice view of his long, lean body, his tight, flowing muscles, and a slight show of hip where his shorts had slipped down along with the blanket. There were a few freckles right where his shoulder rolled into his shoulder blade and a scars crisscrossed his otherwise smooth, hairless skin. He didn't have as many as I had, but his looked like they had been far more serious wounds. I remembered how many times he had put himself in danger, how he had self destructed, how he had always been in the thick of every mission and battle. It was hard to square that image of the past with the man who was now sleeping in my bed, the one who spoke softly, smiled warmly, ate junk food as a guilty pleasure, and... loved me.

I picked up Heero's discarded jeans, pilfered his wallet from the hip pocket, and looked inside. Computer cards to unknown things, a few receipts, a few cryptic notes, and some loose credits. Disappointed, I began shoving it back, but then paused and looked closer. I found a small slit tucked under a fold of the wallet. Searching carefully, I slid out a very small picture. It was of me and looked as if it had been cut out of some larger photo. I looked like I was laughing. It really wasn't very flattering. I blushed hot and slid it back.

Putting everything back, I let his jeans drop to the floor and then climbed onto the bed. I straddled Heero's hips and bent down. I had it in my mind to say something in his ear to wake him up, but I was still pissed about... a lot of things... and Heero was just too convenient. I didn't have any outlet, couldn't let myself rant and rage like I wanted to. I couldn't even put into words how really crappy I felt. Maybe it sounds crazy, but... It seemed wrong to love Heero when everything he stood for, everything that had happened to me lately, had been because of him, his organization, his mission. He made me happy, he made my toes curl, he made me want to wrap around him and never let the hell go, but I couldn't square that with how I was feeling. I bit him, hard, right on the shoulder; angry, possessive, punishing, wanting.... so many things wrapped up in teeth grinding into skin. I tasted blood before I realized that I had gone too far. My next clue was when Heero whipped around and clocked me with his fist. Soldiers and reflexes. I had them too. I was jerking backwards instantly, taking out some of the force of that blind swing. It still connected, though, and I still ended up sprawled on the floor.

"Duo?! What the-" I heard Heero sit up, knowing that he was stunned, still half asleep, still trying to figure out what had happened.

I gingerly touched my jaw and felt the growing lump there as I tried not to pass out The room shimmered in and out of focus.

Heero found the bite. "Duo? Why did you do that?" and then, as he finally put everything together, "Gods! Are you all right? Did I hurt you?"

Hands were on me, then; gentle, concerned. I really didn't deserve it. I'd asked for that punch. I think I felt better, though, well, despite the terrible, throbbing, pain in my jaw and where the back of my head had connected with the floor. A little release of my pent up frustrations had recalibrated my mood and put my mind back in the cross hairs. I don't think a psychologist would recommend it though, as a therapy, but I'm just guessing here.

I sat up and Heero supported me, sitting down beside me on the floor. Blood was trickling very slowly down his shoulder. I blinked to clear my eyes and said stupidly, "Jeez, Heero! I'm so sorry! You're bleeding! I just... I..." Okay, I'll give a hundred credits to anyone who can explain biting someone that badly and make it into a good thing... or at least make it mean something less than what it did. I'd punched him, fought with him, and now I had bit him until he bled. I was in the abusive lover category now and stepping another rung down the loser ladder.

I stood up abruptly and tried to walk away from it all. I didn't know what to say. Heero grabbed my pants leg and wouldn't let go. He sat silently until I dared look down at him. He was frowning darkly. "Do you know what your problem is?" he asked seriously.

I crossed my arms over my chest and fisted my hands tightly, bracing myself for the 'kick to the curb'.I wouldn't put up with my crap, why should he?

"Do you?" Heero persisted, wanting to know that I was paying attention.

"Yeah," I said. "I'm an asshole."

Heero blinked and then he said, "You hold it all inside of you. You hold it in until it builds and builds... until it finally explodes."

"What?" I wondered. "What am I holding inside?"

"Anger... hate... disappointment..." Heero gave a tug and I sat down again heavily, still holding myself tight."We don't have Gundams to destroy things, to vent. We have to talk now, you have to admit what you're feeling."

Feelings... I made a face. "I'm not very good at talking about things like that."

"Neither am I," Heero replied. His hand clasped mine and he looked down at them as he said, "I don't mean, open up and tell me something personal... I meant, shout at me if you want to, tell me how mad you are, tell me how you hate all of this.. Tell me how pissed off you are at me."

"Are you sure?" My voice sounded shaky. I pulled myself together and managed a rough laugh. "I've bottled up a whole lot of crap, Heero. It could take a lot of shouting to get it all out."

Heero touched his shoulder and then looked at his blood covered fingers. "It's better than being bitten... or getting hit." He looked at me with worry. "Do you think this needs stitches?"

I snorted. "Baby... it's just a flesh wound. What happened to the guy who used to set his own leg?"

"I'm tougher after I have my coffee," Heero smirked.

The pain growing behind my eyes was more than stress, it was caffeine withdraw. I turned and fetched us both coffee. We moved to the bed, then, and I sipped at mine one handed while I dabbed at the bite on Heero's shoulder with a peroxide soaked rag.

Heero winced. "Your cleaning flesh, not getting grease off of an engine part," he complained.

Guilt stabbed me again. "Sorry."

I finished and put the rag aside to cradle my coffee in both hands. The bleeding had stopped but it was still ugly looking.

Heero rooted around for a shirt. He pulled a red one from the duffel and put it on. It was wrinkled and it was mine. "You'll get blood on it," I protested.

Heero eyed me. "and?"

I chewed on my lip as he dropped his shorts and pulled on his jeans. "You have a truce until after I drink my coffee," I grunted and he laughed as he picked his own coffee back up and settled to drink it.

"What the hell do you see in me?" I wondered suddenly.

"That's not much of a truce," Heero said in surprise.

"I meant, a truce about the shouting part," I clarified.

"Oh...." Heero's blue eyes turned warm and the look he gave me...If I could have taken it all back and bitten myself, I would have. What the hell makes me do things like that? It was just nuts and so... I was curious to hear his reply. "I didn't make you talk about 'feelings'."

He had a point. I looked him over. "Doesn't have to be about feelings," I told him."You're damned handsome, sexy as hell, great in bed, and...I... I just want to be with you."

Heero blushed, but his smile grew even warmer. "Same here, but..."

"Yeah?" I wondered suspiciously.

"You're like a jet fuel fire," Heero said and his eyes sparkled. "You always have been, especially in battle. I... I like that."

So, he was nuts too. He liked the screwed up, hotheaded, loud mouthed person that was Duo Maxwell.

"And your ass is perfect," Heero suddenly added with a smirk.

I shoved at him, laughing, and he rocked under the force, laughing too. We finished our coffee and I stood up. "Get on your shoes, Yuy. Wu Fei expects us to be at the last scrap pile in a few minutes. I gave you as much time as I could."

Heero sighed and put on his work boots. When he was ready, we both left the shack. I paused on the porch and he looked at me curiously.

"Truce is over," I told him. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

Heero nodded, but he pointed towards my scrap yard neighbor. "Remember our cover though."

"I think I can manage that," I replied. I thought for a moment and then stepped off the porch and shouted, "You think you can just walk the hell into MY scrap yard and tell me what to do?! Let me tell you, I was running scrap before I sat in a Gundam and nobody does scrap like Duo Maxwell! Goddam eat my food, goddam live in my shack, move your damned relative in, try to run my business for me....!" Heero raised eyebrows, but he listened dutifully as he followed me to the scrap pile. I was feeling better and better with every stinging word I delivered and I was just getting warmed up too. I just hoped that he would still love me afterward.


	20. Springing the Trap

Lawless Hearts  
Part 20:Springing the Trap  
by Kracken

 

 

"And then you guys almost lost my goddam clothes! All the clothes I own were in that damned duffel!" Okay, so I was getting a sore throat by the time we rounded the corner of the scrap pile and found Wu Fei waiting for us in a tshirt and jeans, arms crossed across his chest and an eyebrow raised.

"Should I ask?" Wu Fei wondered, looking past me at Heero.

"He's... venting," Heero replied, almost sheepishly. "He's making good points."

"Damn right I am!" I snarled.

"If we could get to work..." Wu Fei sighed and turned away, unmoved by my temper.

It's too hard to keep shouting when the people, that you have a bone to pick with, treat you like a child having a tantrum. I suddenly didn't feel so good. I did feel childish. I guess I could have made my points without screaming them at Heero.

"Heero, there's blood on your shoulder," Wu Fei said suddenly with a hint of alarm.

I came out of my self indulgent wallow and saw Wu Fei begin to reach for Heero, the darker stain evident on Heero's shirt. Heero shrugged him off. "I cut myself yesterday," he lied. "I caught the scab putting the shirt on."

Wu Fei narrowed eyes and then shot a look at me. Heero really sucked at lying. I didn't know what to say. I felt like an asshole.... because I was one. I swore, right then and there, that, no matter how pissed I was, from then on-.

"Typical," Wu Fei said almost under his breath.

My fist cocked back and I felt a hot flush cover my entire body. I was going to hit him. His cold eyes waited, appraising me. I forced my hand to relax, opened the fingers, and then lowered it to hang limp at my side. Maybe all that yelling had helped. I felt in control. "It's not typical, but" I told him. "After what you and the Preventers did to me, what you're still doing, I'm allowed to have... issues."

"Issues?" Wu Fei scowled, but then he suddenly had an odd look on his face. He paused, face going dark and distant, as if he were looking inward. "Because of our lives," he said, "perhaps we all are allowed to have ...issues." He blinked and then came back from his thoughts to me and the pile of scrap. His dark eyes skewered me. "I trust that this... issue... has been addressed?"

"Yes," Heero replied for me, firmly, "It won't happen again."

"No, not again,"I promised with feeling.

Wu Fei nodded, and the subject seemed closed for now, as we began working. After a minute, though, Heero sidled next to me, leaned in to butt his head against my shoulder lightly, and then nuzzled next to my ear, as he said, "Love bites are okay, you realize?"

I looked sideways at him and grinned, realizing that Heero was forgiving me. "You mean, hickies?"

"Hickies," Heero repeated with a smirk.

"What would Wu Fei think about that?" I wondered with a snicker.

"That you are both not concentrating on the task at hand," Wu Fei said, closer to us than I had realized. I blushed red as he added, "May I remind you both that we have a deadline?"

"Yes, General Wu Fei, sir," I muttered under my breath.

"He has very good hearing," Heero warned nervously.

"I hope so," I replied. "I'd hate for him to miss anything I have to say about him."

"We have to be partners," Heero admonished me and he was suddenly very serious. "We have to all work together, Duo, to make this mission a success."

"I know, I know! I can't afford to be pissy with Wu Fei," I sighed. "He makes it freakin' hard though."

"He does," Heero replied, "but the things that annoy you the most, make him an excellent agent."

I thought about that. "Maybe...in most cases. Out here, his attitude is a liability."

"You know something?" Heero wondered sharply.

I thought about the man who had made me the job offer, but I still wasn't ready to drag that into the light. If a man like that had his finger on that kind of information about me, then how hard was it going to be for him to finger an arrogant, bad tempered L5 agent and a scowling, oriental agent with hair and eyes that were pretty damned distinctive? Heero and Wu Fei couldn't see how they stood out in the scrap yards of L2. I had it in my mind to check out that man first, see how much he knew, and see how much of a danger he was to my two undercover employees. I felt almost like a piece of meat being dangled in front of one of Trowa's lions, only I was doing the dangling. I needed to see just how dangerous, just how many teeth, this lion had when he snapped for me, and what his game was, before I let my lover and his partner loose on him. I didn't turn in customers unless they deserved it and I didn't let babes into the savage jungle of L2 without some idea of the danger they were in.

"I don't know anything," I lied and shrugged. "I'll let you know when I do."

Heero looked ready to argue that point, not liking my expression, but I began working and didn't give him the chance to say anything else. He said after a minute, maybe trying to divert my mood, "You're sexy when you sweat."

I was bent way over and I actually looked between my legs at him as I pried at a piece of scrap, scowling.

"And limber too," Heero commented with a smirk.

"Get this pile done today, and maybe I'll show you just how limber," I told him, letting him distract me from my temper, my worries, and my thoughts about the dangers we might all be facing.

"Is that a promise?" Heero wondered, looking eager.

"No promises, just wishful thinking," I told him.

Wu Fei grunted sourly, higher up on the pile. The sunlight was beating down on us all, and it gave him weird halo as he glared down at us. "Now that you have your incentive, Yuy, perhaps you can apply yourself to your work?"

Heero blushed, but he was smiling too and, I noticed, he did start working harder.  
______________________________

They were asleep. I opened an eye and squinted at Heero first, curled up against my side, fast asleep, and... drooling.... I edged away a bit, and then at Wu Fei in his bed, who was hugging his pillow like a teddy bear and looking as if he were having pleasant dreams. He'd finished my accounts late that night with my help, sent off the revised taxes, and told me he was astounded that I hadn't gone out of business long ago. It seems I have mostly crap for scrap taking up most of my yard. Wu Fei had shaken his head and talked about credit per square foot. When he'd seen my deer in headlights look, I was given a terse explanation that space equals credits, something that Heero had tried to explain to me too, and that being disorganized costs credits.

Exhausted, and lulled by their long, drawn out talk about L2 economics and the chances of selling my metal scrap for... well... scrap... I had fallen asleep. I felt stupid that even Preventer agents, without any stake in how well my business was doing, were better at running it than I was. I had fallen asleep thinking about taking some sort of L2 business course or begging Hilde to come back and work for me. Now that I was awake again, I had other things on my mind, like taking advantage of a perfect opportunity.

Wu Fei had left his small handheld computer out on a side table by his bed. The screen was showing a bouncing ball lazily tracking back and forth. It was well within my reach and... it was almost too easy. I eyed him. His face was smooth and untroubled when he slept. He looked like he was ten years old. I couldn't imagine him being that relaxed if he were really awake. I couldn't imagine Chang Wu Fei letting anyone see him nuzzled into a pillow with his arms hugging it, even to spring a trap on me.

I reached out very slowly and took the computer off the table. I watched for any frown, any twitch, but Wu Fei continued to sleep. Breathing easier, I relaxed on my side away from Heero, and placed the computer on the sheets in front of me. It wasn't logged out. I was like a rat seeing a piece of cheese in a rat trap. I knew it was a set up, had to be... but I needed that computer.

I am an expert, a child prodigy, when it comes to systems of any kind. Wu Fei and his trap didn't stand a chance. Nor did the trap he had hidden by that trap. I grinned as I breezed by them and logged on to the net. I spent the next hour researching my supposed 'client'. I didn't like what I found not at all. He was definitely a player in big things and he did have some big names on his payroll, names I knew from the war. He wasn't dealing scrap, that was pretty clear.

I went to a trickier next step. Now that I knew that the man was a big fish, I needed to know if he was Wu Fei's and Heero's big fish. I'm pretty sure hacking into Preventer files was illegal. Especially when I suddenly felt Heero's warm breath on my neck and saw his hand reach over me to log off the computer and close the lid. He whispered in my ear, a mere breath, so as not to wake Wu Fei, "It's a five year sentence for breeching Preventer security."

I stiffened, swallowed hard, and then whispered back, "Thought I was your partner."

"Not... officially," Heero replied as he took the computer from me.

"So..." I never could keep from being blunt, wanting to know the cards that were being dealt me. "Are you going to buy that I was just surfing the net for porn?"

"Since I didn't see what you were looking at," Heero replied, "and Chang left his computer where you could innocently take it and gain access to a logged on system... yes. Just... don't push it again."

"Yes, sir," I promised dutifully, feeling like I'd just missed getting my head chopped off. "Can I go now, Officer Yuy?"

"That's 'agent', and, no, you can't go " he grumbled very quietly. He pulled me close against him, rubbing a hard on against my ass."Guess what woke me up? I seem to remember a promise you made..."

I frowned, reached back, and took hold of the thing sticking out of Heero's shorts. It was smooth as silk, but hard as... well... wood. "That's not going anywhere you want it to, buddy, so put it back in it's holster and opt for the cold shower. I'm not a freakin' exhibitionist. Your partner doesn't sleep that heavy and it's about time for his sadistic inner clock to start ringing.

Heero sighed, his breath tickling the hairs at the nape of my neck. "You're cruel. A little rub and I'll be done, I promise." He tried to move in my hand. I squeezed very hard, gave it a painful jerk, and then let go as I sat up. It didn't help that I now had a hard on too. I was wearing my jeans and not a shirt. My erection was swollen and trapped against the denim. A hand reached around and rubbed it.

I glared back at Heero. He twitched the blanket aside, smirked unrepentantly, and showed me how hot and bothered a part of his body was. God! It was- he was gorgeous! I wanted to bend over and work him with my mouth for all I was worth. Wu Fei, though.... I heard him stir. We were already waking him up.

I grabbed a shirt off the end of the bed, slipped it on, and motioned with my chin for the door. We snuck out like we were in Oz territory. When we were a safe distance from the shack, Heero's hands were on me , grabbing at me, holding me, touching and rubbing me everywhere as I tried to get us to my shack without coming in my pants. There was something about seeing Heero this way, completely open, completely aroused, completely wanting me. The light in his eyes was telling me about love and passion and lust, and it was making me hotter than a space shuttle thruster on full throttle.

Don't ask me why I suddenly decided that now was the time. It just... was. Maybe Heero had finally proven that he had my back when he had decided to let me evade Wu Fei's traps and thread the needle of the law for me. He hadn't even asked what I had been looking at, just trusted me to not be doing something to hurt them or the case. That made me suddenly trust Heero as well, made a wall fall down between us that had seemed harder than Gundam steel.. That trust fueled my heat, fueled my need to have all of him.

We didn't make it to my shack. His hands were already tugging at my zipper, slipping inside, grabbing hold, and then sliding up my body to tweak nipples. His mouth tried to inhale mine, locking us together so tightly that, when I backed over a piece of scrap and fell over, he landed on top of me in the caustic sand. We both took only long enough to see that we were sandwiched between two concealing piles of scrap, before my pants started going down with Heero's help.

I wanted... I wanted... but... "He- H- Heero," I said, trying to talk with his tongue trying to claim mine. He said only, "hmm?" as he pulled his shorts down and his erection bobbed free. "Uh, hm, uh,.... we kind of...hm... uh.... need, mfh... you know..."

Heero went completely stiff in more ways than one as he searched my eyes in shock and ... hope... as he pulled away from my lips and choked out. "Now?"

If he had paused for one more second I might have reconsidered having my first time out in the open, in my scrap yard, where God and everyone could find us... but he didn't. He pulled a small tube from an inner pocket of his shorts. I didn't even get a chance to make a sarcastic comment about boy scouts, before his lube covered fingers were finding my entrance. Then I was pretty much reduced to sounds that might have brought mating moose to me from miles around if we had been on Earth. I made moaning sounds that were loud and deep and... when his fingers went in at last and brushed sensitive nerves...embarrassingly pornographic.

I was on my back under the reflectors and the open dome of the station, legs spread, pants dangling from one ankle, boots off and scattered, with another man's fingers in my ass and making me go wild... I'd done some raunchy things in my life...but this seemed something else entirely and it took me a moment to understand my absolute need, my absolute disregard for modesty and morality. I loved that guy with his fingers working inside me. I loved every inch of him. I wanted every inch of him. Nothing seemed nasty or over the top because of that complete 'want'. It was love, pure and simple, and nothing could be wrong when that was true.

I lifted my legs higher. I wanted more. I was ready for it... I thought. They make it look so easy in porn vids... Heero mounted me, asking me, as he coated his erection with the lube and then tried to press it into me, if I was all right, if he was doing it right, and if he was hurting me. I wanted to say 'Yes! Now get the hell off!'. Well, that small cowardly part of me did. He felt impossibly large from the get-go, even though I knew he wasn't. My brain kept saying to me, 'That is not going into us... It just can't.' But I knew it could, knew people did it every day, every night...I didn't question my earlier resolve to be the one on top. It had seemed natural to fall underneath him, to raise my legs to him. I'd deal with my male ego later...

There was a sharp sting and then Heero passed a barrier. He filled me, inch by inch, stretching my insides wide. I bit my lip. I squeezed my eyes shut. He stopped, uncertain."What... What does it feel like? Is it all right?' he asked, eyes concerned.

"Like... a torpedo..." I hissed back. "You should try it. Like... now."

You don't mess with a guy when he's trying to do... this... for , what was becoming increasingly apparent, was Heero's first time on top. I suddenly felt him softening inside me. He was getting too anxious... too afraid he was screwing up. My first time was about to go down, in more ways than one.'Baby!' I swore at myself. 'Idiot!'I tried to remember something helpful and then lifted my knees higher. Heero went snugger against my ass and my balls were suddenly out of the danger zone. That... helped. I looked Heero in the eye and gabbed his ass. "Screw me, Yuy!"I ground out.

I gritted my teeth. I desperately told myself that Heero was not about to rip out my insides as he cautiously made a shallow thrust. When I groaned, as if I was going straight to heaven, faking it for all I was worth, Heero suddenly captured the mood, the frantic, 'gotta fuck you', mind set that we had started with. He made five more thrusts and... the feeling changed... I almost didn't trust it. The feeling of having sat on the head of a Titan rocket ship, went away and I 'opened'. Endorphins began pumping. This, very suddenly, felt fucking great! I captured that feeling and groaned, loving it, loving Heero for giving it to me, loving the nerves that were letting me feel this. I wanted more.

"Uhhhnnn! This... feels... so.... good... keep... going...keep... Uhhhnnnnn! Heero!" I panted in rhythm to his thrusts."Man!!!!" I came with a strangled shout, that embarrassingly quick. I looked up into Heero's face to apologize and found him smiling warmly down at me. He let me unfold until he was holding me, stretched out on top of my hot body, his erection sliding out. "Sorry, Heero," I panted. 'I can take care of you. Don't worry."

Heero nuzzled my neck. "Already taken care of." He sounded embarrassed too as he admitted, "I didn't make it past the first couple of seconds."He was quiet for a little bit and then he said, unsure, "Was it... all right?"

Since I hadn't noticed that he'd shot his load early, and he had managed to stay hard anyway, I didn't have any complaints. I grinned. "I just lost my virginity, Heero, and, you know what? It was freakin' fantastic!"But then I moved uncomfortably as he let out a breath of relief and grinned back. "There's sand in my butt, Yuy, get off and let's go shower."

Heero grunted and grimaced as he levered off me. "What the hell is this sand made out of? I think it's stuck in my knees!" He knee caps were red and raw looking. As I began to feel self conscious and pull my pants back up, feeling the afterglow and the sticky, sweaty, come covered mess that was my lower body, I felt like my backside was raw too.

"Next time," I said as he helped me to my feet and hunted for my boots, "Let's be raunchy and spontaneous on a smoother surface."

Heero turned me and handed me my boots. His mouth opened and closed, his eyes fascinated with my boot laces. "I loved it... being with you.....I-I love you, Duo."

I blinked, clutching my boots. I looked down and began balancing on one foot to put one on. I put on the second one before I decided what to say, what to do. I looked up at last, gave him a long, hard look, and then jumped on him. He caught me and held me up, my feet off the ground as I kissed him hard with my hands knotted in his hair. When I broke the kiss, I said, as he let me slide down to my feet again, "Love you, too."

We shuffled feet, stood awkwardly, and then I grabbed him by the waistband of his shorts and tugged him after me. "Okay, okay! Fun time over! Let's shower before Wu Fei comes looking for us."

Heero reached out and took hold of the loop of my jeans and allowed himself to be lead. I glanced back and saw that warm, heart stopping smile on his face directed at me. I found myself smiling back and I didn't even care that my ass was complaining. Get used to it, I told it silently, and my smile widened.


	21. Solo

Lawless Hearts  
Part 21:  
by Kracken

 

"You're hurt?" Wu Fei suddenly asked.

I looked sideways at him as I continued to tug Mudhopper out of its shed. "Huh?"

"You're limping," Wu Fei told me with a frown.

I wasn't going to kiss and tell. "Must have pulled something," I replied between grunts of effort.

"Perhaps you shouldn't aggravate your condition then by this project?" Wu Fei suggested in a critical tone.

On the one hand, I was surprised that he cared that much, on the other, I was pissed that he felt the need to lecture me. Before I could snarl back that I knew what I was doing, Heero was there and offering his help. He grabbed hold of Mudhopper, took a deep breath, and pulled backwards. Mudhopper slid along the ground as if it didn't weight a thing.

I snorted, feeling like a complete weakling, "Heero Yuy, tractor."

Heero chuckled. "Would you like help fixing it?"

I looked at Wu Fei. "Don't you two have Preventer work to do now?"

Wu Fei lifted an eyebrow as he replied, "I will be leaving to talk to agents. We need to run some contraband through your lot and bring it to the attention of our target."

I frowned. "What if your target thinks I'm too small time and just has me arrested?"

"There is that possibility... but a slim one," Wu Fei replied. "He is very opportunistic."

"And smart," I retorted, not liking his confidence. Both Wu Fei and Heero looked at me curiously and I realized that I was giving myself away. "I mean," I scrambled, "that if he's a big time guy on L2, then he has to be smart. You don't get there, and stay there, by being stupid and making mistakes."

"They were safe during the Romafeller's rule," Heero pointed out. "L2 has always been autonomous, almost a dictatorship considering how corrupt the top officials are and how they keep each other in power. Now that we have a new government and new laws on Earth and in space, it's time to stop them, to make them serve their time for their corruption."

I thought about that, tried to imagine L2 free and under a real elected government. It was very hard to picture and I couldn't help feeling cynical. "Sometimes, when you try and step on a snake, it bites you in the ass," I muttered. I was almost sure that the snake they were after was the snake who had been interested in me. I knew that he wasn't going down easily.... if at all.

"You will be selling this machine for scrap?" Wu Fei wondered, changing subjects as if it didn't concern me, or, maybe, he didn't think I should be a part of the more covert side of the operation.

"No," Heero answered for me. "It can be fixed."

Looking at the bent frame and a wheel stuck up in the air, I was amazed at his confidence.

"You should be working," Wu Fei said disapprovingly.

"On what?" I replied acidly as I bent to look at the engine. "I don't have anything to do until someone shows up to either drop off scrap or buy it."

Maybe he thought that I worked the lots, rode the vid phone, shook hands and tried to make deals... yeah, if I was selling a ship or a dog or... Scrap was a whole different kind of merchandise. Wu Fei grunted, exchanged looks with Heero, and then stalked off.

"Did I hurt you?" Heero asked as soon as Wu Fei was out of sight.

"It stings, but I lost my cherry. That's normal, right?" I grumbled as I worked a wrench into a tight space and tried to get leverage. The engine would have to come out.

"Cherry," Heero repeated as he crouched to start work I heard the warm grin. "That's making me excited again."

I glared at him then and found him looking at me lovingly through an open part of the frame. I blushed and growled, "My ass is off limits until it stops hurting, Yuy, so don't even start!"

"I'll be better at it next time," Heero promised, sounding concerned again.

That made me think. I paused and crouched with the wrench in one hand. I had to ask, "Heero, you told me that you've always slept alone... did that mean, alone, alone? I mean...."

Heero looked uncomfortable and suddenly sullen.

I narrowed eyes at him. A guy just doesn't like to admit something like this, but I really needed to know. "You're... a virgin...," I said slowly, hardly believing it.

Heero blushed furiously and snapped, "If you want me to help on this piece of crap, then we should get started!"

"Nope, not arguing, not getting distracted, Mr. Pissy," I told him firmly. I crept close to him and, since he was crouched too, we were eye to eye. I could almost feel the heat of his embarrassment roll off of him. I felt bad for the guy, but, I was getting my answer. "How did you not go crazy?"

Heero blinked at me and then he said, knowing that he had to confess, "I was confused about what I wanted. I kept... kept trying to..."

My eye went wide in understanding. "You tried it with girls... kept trying it with girls, didn't you?"

He made a twitching shrug. "Yes... not that anything... happened."

"Because you're gay," I finished. He nodded. I laughed. He scowled. I tried to make it better for him. I calmed enough to say, "Well, aside from some mutual masturbation, I haven't done anything either... so... I guess we were each other's first time." I reached out and squeezed his hip hard. "Or we will be when I get my chance in the pilot's seat."

He leaned forward and kissed me hungrily, but I was pushing him back in the next moment and laughing as I turned back to Mudhopper. "Not now! Mudhopper needs us. Try to get your mind out of your pants and pick up a wrench."

"Actually, my mind was in your pants," Heero replied a he dug through the box of tools.

We worked side by side and there was a calming quality to it. Of course, Mudhopper didn't get fixed, but it didn't look as hopeless when we called it quits a few hours later.

"Customer," Heero said as he looked over my shoulder and nodded towards the front gate.

I turned and saw someone I knew. I grinned and hurried over to him, wiping my hands on my pants before I extended one to shake his. "Ben! Long time no see!"

He smiled back, the smile of a cat sizing up mice. His eyes roved over my lot. "Cleaner than last time."

"I have some new help," I told him.

He was a heavy set man in overalls and a dirty tank top. He looked like he lifted trucks for a living. His shaggy head of black hair made me think of bears. "Been talk," he said shortly and that said a hell of a lot with so few words.

"Yeah?" I played dumb, of course.

"Maybe we can make a deal and help us both out?" Ben didn't beat around the bush. At least he scalped people in plain sight instead of behind a man's back.

I saw Wu Fei suddenly standing behind the man's shoulder. He was looking very serious. He nodded once, meaning, I suppose, that I should look desperate and make the deal. Okay, I could play what I really was pretty convincingly, I thought.

"Things have been pretty rough," I told Ben. "The jerk in the next lot keeps stealing my customers and my deliveries. If you can see your way to buying some scrap, I think I can give you a good deal on it."

"Good man," Ben said and made a laugh, like a bad engine turning over, deep in his throat. He leaned close... He was like a mountain with bad breath. "We should go inside, do this in private."

Ooookay... I did deals out in the lot. Anyone who wanted differently... made me want to draw a gun or call the police. Everything I've done hasn't always been on the up and up. I've burned people... people who deserved it, granted, but still... I know I had enemies. I didn't know if Ben was one, but I wasn't giving him the chance to enlighten me one way or the other.

"Well, Ben.., " I rubbed at the back of my neck and was about to launch into, 'All the scrap is out here..' when I saw Wu Fei scowl and make a gesture towards my shack. He wanted me to go through with it. I almost gave him away, almost told him to mind his own damn business, but then he pointed to himself and then off to where, I guess, Heero was standing by. I got it. They were my backup. I re-evaluated the situation.

"Guess it is damned hot out here. Come on in." I motioned Ben to follow me as I led the way to my shack. Going inside, I left the door open. Ben didn't protest. That was a good sign.

I sat at my desk, just to keep some space between us. Ben leaned on the desk, on his knuckles. I thought about gorillas as he said, "I need points for extractors, twenty five of them."

I sat up. They were worth good money and I had them, though not in the best shape. "I've got them, some with rust, some with burns, but they do work," I replied.

"Acceptable," He grunted and then leaned in, eyes intense. "200 credits each."

I blinked and then laughed. "200? Try 600."

"Rusted? You're drunk!' Ben growled. "250."

"I'm cold sober," I retorted and glared. "550."

"Drunk and crazy!" Ben snarled and leaned so close he rained spit on me. "300."

"Not as crazy as you!" I snarled back, wiping at my face in disgust. "500."

He glared, nostrils flaring, breath going in and out like a bellows. A vein throbbed at his temple. "350."

I stared. He stared back. "450 and that's it."

"450?" His dark eyes looked like they could kill. "450..." he repeated. "450..." Those eyes suddenly looked me up and down. I knew that look. You didn't live with soldiers and rebels, who were mostly men, for a long stretch without seeing that 'look' a few times. This look had an added dimension to it, though, one that gave me the impression that he had planned to say what came next all along, that he had wanted privacy just for his next offer.

When he said it, I was suddenly on top of the table and throwing my weight behind my fist for all I was worth. It caught him on the point of his chin. His head snapped back and he went flying backwards right through the open door. Maybe I wasn't working out anymore, but I was still a man who could fly a Gundam. That took some spectacular physiology.

I ran after Ben. He was on his back on the porch, hand on his chin. Heero was there, standing ready, and so was Wu Fei. Fuck me for thinking I could trust someone else to back me up, for letting myself get talked into a situation that I had known was wrong. I'd always looked after myself. Today wasn't any different I could handle an asshole like Ben. I grabbed Ben by the front of his shirt and yelled into his face, "450 or get the hell off my lot!"

Ben turned his head aside and spat blood, then he looked at me and grunted as he sat up. I let him go and backed up. "Guess some of the rumors are wrong."

"What the hell does THAT mean?" I demanded.

"Said you were paying for things in bed." He sneered at my 'help'. "Or... maybe I'm just not your type?"

My hand balled into a fist again and he winced. "450," I repeated. "Or get the hell OUT!"

"450," Ben agreed. "Done." Then he sneered at me. "At least they were right about you being desperate."

I felt as if a volcano erupted inside of me. I was proud of myself that I didn't beat the shit out of him. He could say crap if he wanted, as long as he transferred the damned credits. I panted and trembled, holding myself back, as Ben stood and keyed in the transfer to the computer pad Wu Fei offered him. He looked Wu Fei over and licked his lips, then he looked back at Heero and found the eyes of a killer. He started and then said, as he beat a hasty retreat to where ever he had parked his vehicle, "Those aren't damned scrapmen..."

I seethed and said tightly, "Get pervert there his 25 points."

Heero demanded, coming up at my elbow, "What did he do?"

"Wanted a fringe benefit along with his points, that's all," I ground out. "Nice to know I have a reputation as a whore now. Thanks a lot!" I walked into my shack and slammed the door closed. I locked it and spent the day feeling sorry for myself.

Heero was smart. He waited until nightfall, when the temperature cooled down and so did my temper. When the knock came on the door, I was ready to at least look at him. I wasn't sure what I was going to say, though.

Heero was a stark shadow in the overhead lights as I opened the door. The scrubbers went into gear and we waited, staring at each other. It seemed to take forever this time, for them to retract and leave the place in silence.

"Wu Fei returned safely," Heero began.

"Yeah?" I wasn't helpful.

"Duo," Heero said, sounding anguished, "We didn't intend for any of this to happen to you."

"Maybe I would have done better locked up," I growled, crossing my arms over my chest and glaring. "Then I could have had some sort of reputation once I got out."

"You don't look very well," Heero replied, as if he were changing the subject.

"Losing everything I worked for does that," I retorted. I left the doorway and went into the bedroom, not caring whether he followed or not. I sat on the bed, looking at nothing very hard, my hands lax between my knees. I wanted to smoke. I wanted something to drink. I wanted something to take the edge off. I told myself that I wasn't going to do any of that, though, the same way I told myself that I wasn't going to punch Heero in the face.

Heero sat on the floor. He leaned to get coffee, pulled the tabs, and handed me one. It steamed in the cooling air as I cradled it in my hands. "I was coming anyway," Heero said, as if he was choosing his words carefully, "but Wu Fei wanted me to ask you something as well."

I watched Heero fiddle with his coffee cup from under the cover of my long bangs. I just wanted him to go away. I'd been, mentally, trying to gnaw off the leg caught in the trap Heero and Wu Fei had set for me. I hadn't come up with any solutions, nothing to get me out of it, so I was depressed now. I wanted to curl up in bed and pull the blankets up over my head. I wanted to forget all about my crappy life, about scrap, about credits, about Ben, and about everyone on L2 who thought Duo Maxwell bent over to keep his business running.

I know I needed to say something. I loved Heero. I could salvage that, keep that at least, but that made me think about how much he didn't need me, how much it was all one sided. Here I was, a complete loser, and there he was, the best and brightest in the Preventers. He wasn't going to drop all of that and deal scrap and I wasn't going to... I put a stop to that. I was depressed enough as it was. My relationship with Heero didn't need more reasons to fail, it had enough of them already.

"So, what did Mr. Chang Wu Fei want to ask?" I growled after I discarded everything else as too crude.

Heero's hands tightened on his coffee. "He wants to know... why our target already knows you."  
Maybe I wasn't feeling sick before, but I did now. I know the blood drained out of my face. How was I to know that Chang hadn't just gone to meet with Preventer agents, that he had actually gone to feel out their target.

"I can explain," I blurted, looking up at last, feeling the iron cuffs going on my wrists already.

Heero sounded completely confident in me when he replied, "I know you can."

I felt like a shit as I told him, "He sent someone to the yard. I turned him down when he offered me a job. I get that, sometimes, people who think they can get a Gundam pilot on their payroll."

"Did you suspect he might be our target?" Heero wondered.

"Yes... maybe... " I took a sip of my hot coffee, trying to gather my scattered wits together. "It was possible, I guess, but.... I told you... I'm not handing people over to you unless they freakin' deserve it."

"Is that why you were on Wu Fei's computer?" Heero asked."Finding out?"

"Why, Mr Yuy, that would be illegal," I said, but it wasn't funny and he didn't laugh.

"So, any conclusions?" Heero wondered.

"He's probably your guy... but I don't know for sure. I'm still not going to say until I know." I scowled and said angrily, "It's not like you've been trusting me! You haven't shown me anything on anyone. I know my part, but I don't know yours."

Heero slipped his computer out of his pocket and booted it up. He tapped keys with fine precision and then turned the screen where I could see it. 'This is the man we are after."

It took me only one glance to know it was nearly the same information that I had hacked. "Okay, so it's the guy. Now what?"

"This is classified," Heero impressed on me. "We may have only this opportunity to catch this man before he perpetrates a much larger crime."

"Selling contraband for suit manufacturing?" I surmised. Heero blinked at me, shocked. "I'm right, aren't I? Weapons and suits, equals terrorist candy, and they pay a lot to get it. "

"So are Gundam pilots," Heero pointed out.

"Gundam pilots, with weapons know how and connections in the business," I added. "He didn't want me to sell him points and a picture of my tush, that's for sure."

Heero almost crushed his container of hot coffee, understanding my reference to Ben. "I want to kill that man!" he snarled in a way that made me think of relocating to China or melting from knowing how much he cared. "If I had heard what he said to you..."

I growled back, "I've got a dick, too, remember? I took care of it."

Heero closed his computer and put it away, trying to control his emotions. He said, calmer, "Now that Wu Fei knows that our target is interested in more than contraband scrap, he wants you to be our undercover man and accept his offer."

"That' reasonable."

"I told him, no," Heero continued as if I hadn't said anything. "I will contact him and offer my services instead. I'll be the undercover agent."

I snorted. "He won't believe you and I don't need protecting, Yuy!"

"We've ruined your business, disrupted your life," Heero told me. He was struggling with strong emotions. "I told Wu Fei that this sting has moved beyond trying to sell scrap to our target. We don't need you any more. We have to change the plan."

"This guy won't believe you," I repeated, but then I shrugged and put my coffee aside. Exhaustion was making me stupid. I needed to sleep before I could think it all through, my anger, my depression, this turn of events that made everything that had happened to me a waste of time. I was...I couldn't even describe how that made me feel or how I wanted to find a nice strong rope and a place to hang myself... or maybe everyone else.

I think I went numb. Maybe I was having a nervous breakdown? All I know, is that everything went blank and... I didn't care, didn't want to think. I managed to say. "I don't want to do this now. Later. Wait until I wake up again to make any moves. You're a goldfish. He's a shark. You'll be sushi." I'm surprised that I was still thinking of him at all.

"Duo." Heero wanted to say something, I'm sure, but what the hell was there to say? 'Sorry about that whole rest of your life thing.' 'Sorry, we cut your dreams to pieces.' 'Sorry you'll have to leave L2 and find some more credits and another place where they don't know you.' 'Sorry we made a mistake and he wants Gundam pilots, not scrap runners.'

"I'm fucking going!" I snarled, suddenly, finding a last burst of emotion. It erupted from my aching gut and I hardly recognizing my hoarse voice as I collapsed on my bed and turned my face to the wall. "I'm going to be the stoolie! I'm going to be your undercover whore! I'll be freakin' fucked if all of this is for shit! You tell Wu Fei I'll get this guy wrapped and sent to him special delivery."

There was quiet on Heero's side of things. I closed my eyes tightly, feeling like my chest was going to implode with the pain of... getting completely and thoroughly fucked over. I realized that every other though contained 'fuck' now, but it was just too ... fucking appropriate.

Heero didn't reply. He was very smart. He wasn't going to argue with someone in my mood, not someone as deadly as I could be. Instead, he continued to sit quietly, maybe thinking we were through, that he had driven the last nail in our relationship coffin. Maybe he had. I didn't know. Didn't want to know. I went to sleep like I had passed out and I was glad that I hadn't needed to resort to anything chemical or alcoholic to get there. At least I still had that dignity.


	22. Bait

Lawless Hearts  
Part 22: Bait  
by Kracken

 

Warmth was against my back and a soft snore sounded in my ear. I had a violent urge to elbow Heero off the bed, but I throttled it and tried to wake up all the way first... and , yeah, it did feel good to have him hold me. I was also remembering my little, okay, my very big meltdown the night before. I wondered what that had looked like and what Wu Fei and Heero thought about me now. Give me a mission? They were probably going to call a psycho ward instead.

I suppose that I've lived as long as I have by completely bottling things up and by being tougher than gundanium nails when it came down to swallowing tragedy and ... going on from there. How many times... one... two... three... My slate had been cleaned, leaving me to reinvent myself and my life enough times where I should have been a pro at it. It didn't make it hurt any less, though, or make me feel any better about the circumstances that had left me out in the cold yet again.

I found myself staring at the wall. My wall, my shack, my lot, my business. Soon, I firmly believed, it was going to be someone else's. I'd already proved that I couldn't run it by myself, that I didn't have the head for organization or book keeping. With my reputation hanging around my ankles... Ben running off to tell everyone I had suspicious employees, everyone thinking I was a whore, everyone knowing that I was on the edge and willing to make the bad deals to keep myself from falling over it... All that was left was sizing up the coffin and placing my business papers in it for burial. It may seem strange, but volunteering for a dangerous mission, and risking my life by stepping into the den of one of L2's most corrupt official, seemed the ultimate in denial, in sticking my head in the sand a bit longer and not dealing. That suited me just fine.

"What are you going to do when this is all over, Heero?" I whispered and found myself holding Heero's hands, which were holding me protectively."Go back to your life, of course. I don't have one any more and I don't see any place for me in your life." And that hurt more than any of the rest. It took me by surprise, that after everything, I felt even more in love with that damned man wrapped around me. Maybe I was a masochist at heart.

"We wasted years," Heero said suddenly, a tense, pained, whisper, "believing that we weren't meant to be together. Don't keep believing it, Duo. I..." His face pressed into my back, hard, and I felt him shiver. "I will never be able to apologize enough, or make this never have happened... I... I don't know what to do, Duo. I only know that I never want to be without you again. If... If I have to resign from the Preventers and follow you, I will." If I'd have him, he meant, and the question hung in the air.

Why should he give up his life? The thought was bitter in my gut. Heero made a difference. He was out there, every day, saving people. He was trying to save L2 now and, like in the war, some people had to die so that others could have peace. I was the casualty. I didn't think that I was going to be the only one either. I wasn't that self centered. I'd made that sacrifice willingly during the war. I wondered why it should bother me now... oh, yeah, I didn't volunteer this time.

"Since you're up," I said, not telling Heero anything at all, "Let's go tell Wu Fei the good news, that I'm going to be his bait."

I was almost afraid that Heero wasn't going to let go, but he did and shifted to sit up. I turned and looked at him as I sat up as well. He looked... like hell. I had the feeling that my lover hadn't slept at all last night except right before I had decided to talk to myself. He was still dressed, his clothes wrinkled and his hair messed up. He met my eyes. We sat very still and then I leaned close, hooking a hand behind his neck. I squeezed tight enough to make him wince.

"Not now," I told Heero. "After this is done, we'll see what's left to talk about."

A shit would tell me that a lot of my own decisions had put nails in my own coffin. Heero wasn't a shit. He was taking all the blame. He really did love me. He really was suffering, thinking we were through. I could have taken some revenge and exploited that. Well, I wasn't that much of a shit either.

"I love you," I told Heero fiercely and it almost sounded as angry as 'I hate you', "but I don't feel good about anything right now. I don't see how any of this is going to end up... I can't see how I fit... My motto has always been, 'keep moving and opportunities will present themselves.' I can't tell you... I can't make any promise, any plans.... I just have to keep moving and see what happens next."

I could tell he wanted more from me, but he kept his mouth shut. He decided to be attentive instead. While I showered and put on my city clothes, a pair of jeans without holes and a white tshirt without grease, he made breakfast and had my bed made. We ate in silence and, when I was sitting and sipping my coffee, he asked a question that was more loaded than he realized.

"Can I help brush out your hair while you finish?" Heero asked it in a very nervous tone of voice.

My hair was a disaster, half out of it's braid and probably caked with my own salt tears. I should have washed it, but I didn't think I had the time. The thing is, my braid is very personal to me. I protect it zealously and I hated... I hated anyone touching it. It probably stemmed from a lifetime of having people grab it and use it against me in a fight, but, on a deeper level, there were more emotional, needy, reasons to protect it and keep it the one thing that was mine alone. I won't talk about security blankets or teddy bears, but...that was close to what my braid was to me. I had a feeling Heero felt the same way about his glock, which is why it had shocked me to see him without it, but I just wasn't up to analyzing anything like that. I put my coffee aside and shook my head.

"I can brush my own damned hair..." I grumbled . "Make yourself useful instead and get the garbage cleaned up and out of here before we go. We're probably not going to see this place again for a couple of days."

It takes time to brush as much hair as I have. Heero hid his disappointment and did as I asked. I watched him as I worked out the knots. When I saw him pause at my special closet, and watched him check the lock, I almost ... but I steeled my resolve to stay pissed off. His next words broke through that resolve like a mack truck through rice paper. "I'll have an agent stay here and keep your neighbor from making a claim while we're gone."

He was watching my back, keeping my things safe. The business was one thing, but what was mine, what was so freakin' dear to me, he was there and on guard... for me. I almost clocked him with the hair brush as I launched myself into his arms. We both hit the ground, but Heero's arms were around me and his face was buried in all my loose hair, probably wondering if I was attacking him or forgiving him, as he said, over and over again, "Love, love..."

Bruised, me bleeding from a skinned elbow, and Heero sporting a red spot on his jaw from my arm connecting, we forgot everything and just... clung. I couldn't say anything. I didn't know what was going through my head... just.... that I had to have Heero with me, a part of me, no matter what... no matter how much grief was in store for me.

I was hard to recover from that, hard to know how to break the moment, partly because we didn't want to. I had the feeling that we were about to cap it off with a heated bout of sex, when there was firm knock on the door.

"Yuy, Maxwell? We have to talk," Wu Fei called.

I let go of Heero and quickly began braiding my hair, hands shaking. I was a mess. I couldn't be a mess if I wanted to convince Wu Fei to let me take the mission. Heero waited until I was ready before answering the door and he helped me to my feet. He didn't seem much steadier than I was though. His hand reached out and tightened on mine. I felt all of his fear and disapproval, but he knew better than to think he could change my mind. I returned his hard squeeze and then I pulled loose.

"Time for Shinigami to come out of retirement," I told him. Heero went pale, the mark on his face going livid in contrast, but he nodded stiffly, and went to let Wu Fei in.

Wu Fei entered cautiously. We looked like we'd been in a fight and he knew I was angry. I jammed my hands in my pockets and glared at the floor as I made my pitch. "I volunteer for this operation."

I expected a third degree, argument of some kind. I wasn't prepared for Wu Fei to simply say. "All right. You'll have to activate as a special agent and fill out some forms."

I looked up and saw his thoughtful expression. I couldn't begin to guess what he was thinking. Maybe I had volunteered for a suicide mission and he wasn't going to stand in my way. It was like Wu Fe, though, to let a warrior fight his chosen battles. He'd done enough of that during the war.

"Don't you want to ask why?" I still had to know the score, where I stood with Chang Wu Fei.

"I know why," Wu Fei replied, giving me nothing to go on. He was going to keep his cards close to his chest and I was just going to have to guess his hand.

"Okay." That sounded lame, but I didn't know what else to say.

"Chang," Heero began but I pointed a finger at him without looking at him. He stopped talking.

"My choice," I said in warning and he made a frustrated sound.

Wu Fei turned and I followed him out of my shack. "Once you are certified an agent, we'll brief you on the details."

I shrugged as I blinked at the reflected light and scowled at the heat that was building already. Another hot day. Surprise. "I already have a cover story. I know all about this guy. I'll get in, download his operation, and get the hell out so you can arrest him. This would have been a walk in the park in the old days."

"In the old days, you could set a bomb and kill them all," Heero reminded me darkly. "Now they have to be arrested and imprisoned."

"I am allowed to defend myself, right? " I wondered, "or are the guns just to pick your nose?"

I was nervous and not sure I was making a good decision. My mouth got dirty and smart assed when that happened. I always figured, piss the other guy off enough, and he might spill something unintentionally. Wu Fei had come a long way from the young boy who had exploded with fury at the drop of a hat. He didn't respond except to say, "You will be issued a weapon, if you don't have one."

I shrugged. "I haven't needed one since the end of the war. Scrapmen don't have many shootouts. I can't walk into this guy's office with one anyway. He'll have a scanner."

We went into their shack and I sat on one of the beds while Wu Fei booted up his computer. Heero fetched drinks and I sat sipping mine as he settled beside me. Finally, Wu Fei turned the computer towards me.

Paul Harker, Exterior Administrator. "Meaning, he not only helps run L2, he does deals off satellite too," I said and then read his list of suspected crimes. I only nodded, not surprised at all. "He wouldn't be where he is if he didn't murder people, and he wouldn't be doing it at all if he wasn't making a lot of credits. Looks like he was just dealing drugs to begin with." I whistled. "Juke? That's nasty shit. Kolibar.... Ansens... and some old standbys too... cocaine... heroine... that stuff never goes out of style. It's the weapons you're worried about the most, though, right? Hm, he's working with Walters and Barnard. Everyone knows they're doing weapons. So, he has someone buy the stuff to keep his hands clean, and then he has his contacts buy them from the scrap dealer. Sweet. He probably has the first born of every one of his scrapmen too, to keep them in line. So, what's he want me for if he doesn't want me to run weapons?" I answered my own question, my mind leaping ahead. "Ah, he wants to really get into the big time, doesn't he? Put some major weapons together, hire a first rate Gundam pilot, and take over."

"Exactly," Heero replied, looking troubled, and Wu Fei gave a single nod.

I looked at our target and remembered seeing him on vid shows, on the news, and in the papers. He was blonde, blue eyed, and as chiseled and good looking as a model. I didn't know anything more about him other than his face, though, because I was of a like mind with most of L2; uncaring of the higher ups. We didn't vote in elections, because we knew it was corrupt. We didn't argue any new laws, because we knew we would be ignored. We didn't listen to speeches or proclamations, because, not only didn't they concern us, they were most likely lies anyway. We practiced the fine art of 'staying under the radar' and staying far away from the city and it's corruption.

"What do you know about his set up?" I asked.

"First," Wu Fei told me as he took back his computer and changed screens, "you must be cleared."

I made a face. I've never liked paperwork or official channels. I wasn't the kind of guy who could work with restrictions and orders. Give me a mission, I figure it out and executed it. I suppose that sounds arrogant, but I am THAT good, better than pencil pushers who never saw real combat. I knew better what needed to be done than they did.

Wu Fei was typing furiously. I heard a clicking dial tone and then a female voice. My blood froze. Lady Une still sounded... like the woman who had ordered me to be executed during the war.

"Agent Wu Fei?" Une said coolly.

"Maxwell has offered to be our undercover operative," Wu Fei told her.

"Concerns?" she asked promptly.

I'm glad I couldn't see her face. The voice was enough. Wu Fei replied, "None."

I blinked. What the hell had I done to deserve his sudden trust? I rapidly went over the last few days and came up empty.

"Status?" Une asked, not questioning Wu Fei's judgement any further.

"Competent. He is in very good shape," Wu Fei replied.

"All right, I approve his special agent status, but I expect you to supervise closely the entire operation," Une told him in a severe tone.

Wu Fei inclined his head in acknowledgment. "Well start immediately."

Wu Fei broke the connection and then turned the computer towards me. I found myself looking at a very long form.

"Read it carefully and then apply your thumbprint," Wu Fei instructed me. He added, catching my eyes and holding them intently. "If you fail to carry out your part of the mission properly, you will be given a life sentence."

I scrolled down to the bottom of the form without looking at it and applied my thumbprint, then I turned it back towards him. "Anything else or do you want to give me mission specs now?"

Heero sighed. "Duo, you should have read it. There are regulations..."

I looked at him and then at Wu Fei, letting them know that I considered them a team, a part from me. "You follow regulations, I follow what I know. You know what that's worth."

They exchanged looks. "We know," Wu Fei replied as he began pulling up information on his computer for me.

Hope wriggled it's nose at me. I was getting respect and I couldn't figure out why. I was doing something that was making Heero crazy with worry and Wu Fei and Une trusting. Hope was making a very small part of me wonder if this mission, completed successfully , might pull my ass out of its downward spiral. I couldn't get any lower. I couldn't feel any more like a failure. If I could do this, and save the world, once again, it would go a long way to proving to, at least myself, that I still had it, that I could still go on and jump onto the next train of possibility.

I read through building schematics, looked at guard rotations, regular deliveries, most frequent times of online and vidphone activity, and personnel time clocks. The target liked to come in late and leave early. His work day was four hours long, on average.

"Looks like he does a hell of a lot of uploading every two days," I noticed. "Any idea why?"

"We tried deciphering it without success," Heero told me.

I eyed him. "I know how good you are at that. If you can't do it, I probably can't either."

"The encryption is very odd," Wu Fei said.

"Let me look," I said without really thinking that I could do much. Wu Fei booted up the file and I blinked at the odd strings of code and text. I have a gift; to see how things balance and flow, and to anticipate patterns... I saw it suddenly and grinned. I typed it my own string of code and the gibberish settled into known forms. Heero saw my solution and he looked completely embarrassed.

"Of course," Heero sighed in exasperation, "L2 mineral shorthand. That's why the computer didn't know it."

Wu Fei's eyebrows lifted. "Explain."

"Scrapmen use a shorthand among themselves," I told him, "To post notices and label scrap. I don't think it would surprise you that a lot of scrapmen can only scrawl their name? This is how they get by. "

Heero pointed to the screen, "But what are these characters?"

I laughed, "Periodic table and The Iliad." I quoted, "As Dawn spread her saffron mantle over the world, Zeus, who delights in thunder, called the gods to a conference on the highest of Olympus' many peaks.' Weird."

Of course they gaped at me. I shrugged, "Well, I did learn something going undercover in all those schools." I pointed to the scrambled passage again. "So, did this guy have a meeting recently?"

Wu Fei frowned and nodded, "Yes."

"I'm betting it was dealers and not gods, right?" I asked.

"Yes," Heero replied. "This is the formula for micro steel," he said going a little pale as he pointed to the lines on the screen. "That's material for buster rifles. Here's mesh titanium, too."

"Laser guns," I knew. I pointed to a key set of characters. "Titanium kevlar micro binding. Material for suits. I hope this is just a wish list and he hasn't actually had this stuff delivered to him?"

"We don't know," Wu Fei replied. "His network is vast and he works through third parties. We need to infiltrate his systems to discover if he has a production base to utilize these materials."

"And I bet he wouldn't be stupid enough to upload information like that?" I asked, but they didn't have to answer. A guy like that would use couriers not electronics. Material lists were one thing, but deliveries and production sites would be something else.

I sat back, pushing the computer towards Wu Fei. I already had a plan. It was bold and suicidal, but I was used to that. "Okay, I go in as Duo Maxwell, loser and needing money and a job, and I hack the systems as soon as they look the other way. If I go in between shift change, things might be confusing enough that no one will know who gave who permission to go into sensitive areas . I might use that to bluff my way out if there's trouble. I can always use the patented, 'I just needed to know I could trust you, so I was checking you out.' whine. He might buy that or he might shoot me between the eyes. Hopefully, I won't get caught and I'll skinny out of there without a hitch."

"Heero is going to be your backup," Wu Fei told me and I could tell he was unsure about the arrangement. He wasn't talking about backup, as in save my ass if I get into trouble. He was talking about Heero finishing the mission if I was turned into a red smear.

I turned to Heero and grabbed his bicep, squeezing hard enough to make him wince. I leaned in close, meeting his dark blue eyes, and said, "You screw this up, you try and come after me instead of doing your job, and I'll shoot you myself. Got it, Yuy? This is serious shit. This is big, bigger than us. I won't go into this unless you tell me you get that."

"You said once..." Heero tried to choose his words carefully, "You said that you wouldn't risk your life."

I suppose it came out as bitter as hell, but it was the plain truth to me at that moment. "In case you hadn't noticed, my life is over here. I'd rather go out like a shooting star than go out like a bad smell."

Heero cupped the side of my face, caressed me there gently, and said, "You don't have to do this. Your life isn't over. It's with me, if you want?"

"I want to, really I do," I told him, returning the caress and ignoring the fact that Wu Fei had scowled and turned away. Screw him anyway. "I have to do this, though. You know why, right?"

I didn't want to have to explain it. Laying it all out in words might have made me cry. I felt pathetic enough.

"Just be there on the other side, when I'm done, okay?"I demanded, "Not storming the building looking for me like you did during the war."

"I was coming to kill you," Heero corrected me and he sounded choked up.

"Yeah, just keep telling yourself that," I chuckled, but it was strained, "You were checking out my ass from day one."

I let him go, knowing I was about to go over the edge and break down. I clapped my hands together and rubbed them briskly together as I stood up. I said to Wu Fei with false enthusiasm, "Well, let's get started!"


	23. Red Flag

Lawless Hearts  
Part 23:Red Flag  
by Kracken

 

"Duo, stop whistling," Heero complained in exasperation.

"Sorry," I muttered under my breath and then smiled at the old lady in the transport train who was giving me the 'nutcase' eye. We were alone, so I could forgive her for looking ready to hit the emergency door and jump out.

I turned away and walked down the aisle towards the back as Heero said in my ear com, "You've said sorry every time I've told you to stop."

"Habit." I replied shortly and stuck my hands into my jeans pockets. I almost started whistling again and bit my lip. I contented myself with scratching behind my ear with my shoulder.

"Stop it," Heero told me, almost at once.

"Okay, how did you do that?" I wondered.

"Your tracking signal jiggles when you scratch the implanted chip,"Heero explained and sounded amused.

"Yeah, go ahead and laugh," I growled in a low whisper. "I'm the one tagged like a damned wild animal."

"Wildebeest?" Wu Fei suggested, sounding just as amused as Heero, damn him.

"Caribou," Heero countered.

"Shut up, both of you!" I snarled.

"Grizzly bear," Heero said and I could almost hear his smirk.

"I think so," Wu Fei agreed, but then sobered, "Now, if you two would practice mission silence, please. You're almost at your destination, Maxwell."

I'd been too busy being confused by Chang Wu Fei sharing a joke with Heero to notice. I bent and looked through a cracked and filthy window. Greenery began sliding by as we passed between lighted steel columns and then entered the city.

The woman left at the first stop and the late shift of grimy construction workers and system mechanics getting off work, piled on. I found myself being squeezed from all sides. When they left at the next stop, for the poorer section of the city, I looked down and saw that my shirt had dirt marks all over it from rubbing against their work clothes. I sighed.

"Duo?" Heero asked, worried.

"Go," I replied, our code word for all right. 'Stop' was trouble. 'Yellow' was discovered. 'Red Flag' was man down.

The next stops found me in a corner, watching people get on and off as the transport train made it's way to the Government section of town. It was there that I finally reached my stop. I got off; tired, nauseous from the constant rocking motion of the transport, and dirty. I looked like a scrapman, and I found myself adopting the cocky attitude of one, as I walked down the sidewalks, especially when people grimaced at me in distaste and said things to each other where they thought I couldn't hear.

It might seem strange, but I had one thing that I always did when I visited the city. I didn't miss it now. I swung by a large park of trees, grass, flowers, and fountains and sat on a bench to admire it all. A little bit of paradise. A little peace. A little reflection before I went into a situation where I might see blood, guts, and men dying.

My eavesdroppers didn't say anything. They could see by the tracking device where I was. Maybe they understood. I didn't push it, though. I left the park after only a short time and made my way into the heart of the enemy, a row of skyscrapers reaching impossible heights in the light gravity.

I couldn't just walk in. I had called ahead. My appointment had been immediate. They wanted to see me so badly that they were willing to let me have some 'hand' in the situation. I didn't fool myself into over confidence. They wouldn't do it without a reason or a plan to exploit it.

Paul Harker, Exterior Administrator, I read on the outside of the building in letters larger than I was. I kept my cocky attitude and entered boldly through the front doors, hands still stuck in my pockets and white shirt still filthy with dirt.

At least when you're famous, nobody mistakes you for the furnace mechanic. The guards took one look at me and all of them snapped to alert status.

"Duo Maxwell, you're expected, sir," One beefy man said as he made a little salute.

I have a sense about people. Looking at him, and the others, I knew that they didn't have a clue what their boss was up to and that their respect was genuine. I really hoped that I wouldn't have to hurt them.

They took me up a secure elevator and into a posh office space. Three secretaries ushered me into an oval office with expensive glass and Danish furnishings and art that I decided was genuine. The man I was supposed to rat on was seated behind a very large desk. Paul Harker was leaning back comfortably, the light from a large picture window making him look larger than life. If a place could have gods, he would be one of them, I thought. He and his fellow bureaucrats ran the lives of everyone on L2 from the air they breathed to the weather they endured. We were subject to their every whim and their whims weren't usually good ones.

You didn't give people that much power without them wanting to use it, wanting to flex that muscle and make everyone dance. I suppose that was why the man in charge of the weather liked to make everyone miserable. He had the power to and probably got off on bestowing good weather every once in awhile... when he felt magnanimous. I had a feeling I was looking at someone just like that only he was going after the money end of it to. Harker was going to make a Gundam pilot dance and make money off of him too, so I was braced when he said very simply, "I am your new boss."

Of course Harker had waited until my moment of seemingly greatest desperation, when I finally came crawling to him with no other option. Of course, he would cement the statement with a threat and I tried not to look bored as he flashed a computer disk at me and then tapped his chin with it idly.

"You've been dealing with unlicenced dealers, Mr. Maxwell," he told me seriously. "And your taxes seemed to have been doctored most artfully."

Okay, I frowned at that. I couldn't imagine Wu Fei making a mist- Oh, I got it, "You changed them." It wasn't a question.

"Quick," Harker chuckled, "Very quick. Are you also able to add up the years in prison I could sentence you to for that crime alone?"

I bowed my head, jaw working. He was mean and blunt, but I liked a man who didn't play with his food. "What do you want?" I asked tightly.

"I told you," Harker said as he put the disk flat on his desk and moved it around idly. "You are now working for me. You like to break the law, I'll give you the chance to be in on something big, not," he sneered, "not doing scrap deals with L2 trash."

I stared a hole into his carpet, looking very pissed. "I had a bad year. I can pay the fines, throw myself on the mercy of the court, do community time..."

"As if I'd let you," Harker snorted. He put the gloves back on in the next instant, almost purring. "Maxwell, surely you can see that you're rotting all of your talents out there in the scrap heaps? A war hero deserves so much more." He waved to his office. "Surely you have a desire for the finer things in life? I can give you anything you wish, a penthouse apartment, a very generous paycheck, any entertainments you might desire..."

I tried not to shiver, knowing he was talking about something other than the usual girl on each arm. I wanted to punch his lights out, or whoever had given him the impression that I was in to weird things."Don't believe everything you hear," I grated, fists clenched.

"I don't," Harker told me with a new intensity. "Which is why you'll have a trial period, closely guarded, until you prove your loyalty."

He was so sure I was going to accept. I could feel it on my skin, his absolute sense of superiority and strength. I wondered how long it had been since anyone had crossed him, had said 'no' to him.

"They would have so much fun with you in prison," Harker said regretfully. "I've heard terrible rumors... Do you really want to find out, personally, whether they are true or not?"

Prisons on the other colonies were humane rehabilitation and incarceration units. Gone where the days when a prisoner would be thrown in a general population of like criminals to fend for himself. On L2, however, they still had the Oz model for serious criminals: four metal walls and a survival of the fittest environment. I knew that I could hold my own, but I didn't relish having to go through it. I let that trepidation show on my face as I looked up at the man.

"I... " I looked despondent now as I paced away from him, stopped, and held myself tightly. "I guess I don't have any choice..."

"None," Harker agreed, pleased. "Welcome aboard, Duo Maxwell. I'll have someone show you to your new quarters where you can... freshen up. " I heard his distaste at my filthy state. "We'll have our first strategy meeting later today."

He wasn't wasting any time. His stuff had to be red hot for him to be that impatient. I wondered if I hadn't shown up that day, whether he would have come after me at my lot to strong arm me there.

"Deiter! Get in here!" Harker said in a com unit.

I turned back around, looking resigned, as a big security guard came into the room. He looked like a Dieter; a body builder, a rock of muscle that probably had been chosen for his likelihood in taking care of a Gundam pilot if that pilot decided to double cross his new boss.

I licked nervous lips and then made it look like I was putting a good face on things. "Do I get... something to eat?"

"I suppose food has been a problem with your slim income," Harker smirked. "You may order anything you like and Dieter will see it delivered to your room." He gave me an intense look. "Anything," he stressed.

My skin crawled. How could the man put so much raunchy meaning into a simple word?

"Anything," I repeated as if warming to the notion. I nodded and bowed my head as if ashamed at my own eagerness. I could see Harker grinning, thinking he had me firmly on his hook. Yeah, he was falling for the open, boyish, 'Maxwell's a fool' face. I doubt anyone would have been so sure of themselves with Heero or Wu Fei. A street kid from L2 was sure to have a price, but men like them... I could almost feel bitter about that, until I reminded myself that this was a con and that I wasn't really selling myself out.

I followed Deiter from Harker's office. The plan was for me to get away and infiltrate. If Harker was going to announce his plans later that day, I needed my backup to tell me whether it was worth hanging around for. Doing that, when there was likely going to be surveillance devices everywhere, was the problem. I hoped that Heero would get that and tell me what to do without having to ask.

I scratched at the chip behind my ear. It was driving me crazy. My skin was rejecting it, wanting it out. I made myself stop with an effort. If I made the spot raw, they might notice and, if I scratched too hard, it might come out. It was the only thing letting Heero and Wu Fei know where I was.

"He'll expect you to wait for the meeting," Wu Fei said quietly in my ear. I almost jumped. The connection was very clear. "Don't. All the information we need is in those files."

I'm sure Harker knew that too. I frowned. This was too easy. One big guard and a sweet deal. I had to hope that Harker was over confident, that he was too certain that I wanted what he was giving..

"Go," I whispered. All right. I wasn't making the calls. I had to trust that Heero and Wu Fei had figured this guy out already.

I caught myself scratching again. I shoved my hands into my pockets and nodded to Deiter as he opened a door and motioned me inside.

"Want anything?" Deiter asked in a tone that let me know that he thought I was trash.

I grinned at him. "A steak, twice baked potato, cheese souffle, some fine red wine, chocolate truffles in cheery sauce, and oranges."

Deiter's eyebrows went up to his hairline, incredulous. "Oranges? Why not fucking ask for a stack of gold bars while you're at it?"

I took my hands out of my pockets and looked ugly. "The boss said, 'anything I want'. I want oranges."

Oranges had to be shipped. For some reason they hated the L2 climate controls. Anything that had to be shipped through space, was so precious you could use them for money. Deiter scratched at his head and then shrugged. "Anything else?"

"Yeah." My grin widened. "A whore."

"Whore," the man repeated and then looked even more disgusted, but he asked, "Male, female, other..?"

"Male, young." I replied.

"How young?"

"Not legal, young" I told him and winked. "Red hair, bill of health, and green eyes."

"You better be worth it," Deiter growled as he turned to go. "Or Harker will cut off your perverted balls and make you eat them."

"I'm worth it, don't you worry," I told him arrogantly.

I wasn't surprised when Deiter locked the door behind him when he left. I heard the null field and the heavy duty bar locks slide into place. I didn't make the mistake of breaking my cover. The hairs on my neck were prickling. I was sure I was being watched. That was all right. I had a solution for that.

Taking a small ball out of my pocket, I began nonchalantly tossing it up and down as I looked around the apartment. It was very richly furnished. I was impressed. There was a mini bar as well, but I resisted the urge to take a stiff drink.

"Jeez! It'll probably take that ape all day to find a red head," I muttered for effect. "I should have asked for a blonde."

I went into the main room and then began bouncing the ball off the walls. I made it an obvious game, grinning and laughing as I successfully caught each, seemingly, wild toss. 'Seemingly', because I was making very sure to keep one side of the ball from hitting the wall until I was absolutely sure where the surveillance node for that room was. When I had pinpointed it, I flipped the ball and tossed it directly at it. The metal plated side of the ball hit it dead on and there was an audible pop.

I didn't want them to panic. I tossed the ball a few more times on the safe side and then yawned. "Maybe I should rest up.... take a nap... I'm going to put that whore through his paces, that's for sure. I need my strength for that." I laughed evilly and made myself feel sick with disgust.

I jumped on the leather couch. It made a loud, whoosh!, noise and I settled, yawned again, and then went quiet. Very carefully, I rolled off the couch and made my way, not to the front door, but to a window. It was thin paned and a straight drop to the pavement far below. Only a lunatic would try to go out that way, so it wasn't locked or set with alarms. I popped the service tabs and opened it outward.

Pulling a round, puck like, device from my pocket, I pressed it against the outside wall and pushed a button. A gel oozed out and seeped into every pore it could penetrate in the wall. That gel then dried instantly, a rigid seal that nothing short of a large explosion could dislodge. Pushing another button, a climbing wire released. I pulled, paying the line out as I measured the drop to the next window by sight. Once I thought that I had enough line, I locked the line down and attached one end to my belt.

I had to trust that, if anyone happened to look up, they would think I was a worker. I couldn't take the time to worry about it as I slid out of the window and defied death as I made my descent. Deiter would be awhile finding my oranges and my underage, health card carrying, red haired, whore, but he wouldn't be forever.

"Duo," Heero whispered anxiously. "Why is my monitor showing you on the OUTSIDE of the building?"

"Because I am," I told him with a small laugh that was stoked with adrenaline. "Every other level is a hallway with offices. The hallways end with a window. I'm heading for one of those windows right now."

"Too risky!" Wu Fei snarled. "You were supposed to break out of your room!"

"Couldn't do it," I replied sharply. "Too many bugs in the room. Null fields and bolt locks make a lot of noise. Don't worry, Fei-Fei, I have it under control."

"Maxwell!" Wu Fei snarled, but Heero was there suddenly, a calming presence.

"I trust you," Heero told me.

"Go," I said simply, but managed to put some warmth in it.

It was a busy building, but I was sure that most of that business happened on the lower levels. These upper levels were reserved for 'private' business and flunkies. The hallway I saw, as I peered through a dust covered window, was empty. I didn't push my luck that it would stay that way for long. I opened the window and tossed my ball at the surveillance node. After a satisfying pop, I slipped inside the hallway and closed the window.

It was hard not to be cocky as I pulled a pack from under my shirt. Inside was a vacuum sealed uniform, with all the appropriate badges, that Wu Fei had supplied me. After I opened it, it sprang back to its original size and I put it on. The long braid, as always, was a problem. Workers didn't wear hats. My only option was to tuck the long tail under my uniform back and pull up my collar.

"Go," I said again and began walking, tossing my jeans and shirt into the nearest garbage receptacle as I rounded a corner and headed for the more secure parts of the building.

There's a sense of security people get when they think the normal citizenry have been effectively kept out of an area. There were guards, security measures, and pass points where ID had to be okayed by verifiers. That sense of security makes people stupid.

I stopped at an ID point and stood, looking chagrined, as I held a card in one hand. A man came up, slid his through, and looked at me curiously. He sighed in a long suffering way and asked, "Sticking again?"

"Yeah," I commiserated, looking over my fake ID card. "Third time in one day. I'm new. Harker is going to think I can't do my job if I keep getting hung up here."

The man was my sympathetic buddy at once. "He does have a short temper.... Why don't I let you through this time? You can go get another pass card when you're done."

I beamed at him. "Thanks! I really appreciate that!"

It was hard not to call him the dumbass he was as he helped me get through the checkpoint. Beyond the checkpoint, there was a huge room filled with computer banks, cubicles, and bored looking employees. I only had to check three stations to find someone who'd stepped out for coffee or gossip and left themselves logged onto the system.

Six seconds, that's all it took to figure out that Harker liked his own name enough to use it for his correspondence files and that the Iliad was a running theme with the man. What would a man like him use as a password? Agamemnon, of course. I kept from snickering as I downloaded everything to Preventer headquarters and then followed that up by uploading all the main frame core files there as well. Duo Maxwell is nothing if not thorough.

I had to get myself out now. That's always been last on my list and I don't think I've ever planned an escape. Getting the mission done had always been priority one. Life of the pilot, had always been dead last... as in dead... as in, I used to think I wasn't going to make it out of those missions alive. Sure, I did the dog and pony show for Heero and Wu Fei, made them think I had it together, but, even now, I still hadn't bothered really formulating something.

I considered repelling, window to window, until I was below security levels, but then nixed that. As I stood and began to leave, I noticed a full waste basket. I cheerfully grinned as I picked it up and emptied out the bag. Tying it in a neat knot, I rounded a cubicle and waved it at the irritated man sitting there with a pile of work to do.

"I'm new. Can you tell me where the garbage goes, please?" I asked.

The man snagged his own bag from his wastebasket and held it out to me. "Third level, end of the hall. There's a chute and a compacter. Paper goes in the chute, aluminum goes in the compactor. Mind taking mine?"

"Sure thing." I grabbed his bag, knotted it up, and added it to mine. I was given four more bags by other employees seeing my errand before I could get out of the room.

A distraction. Taking out the garbage. A compactor. Compactors had to be emptied. There had to be an access way to the compactor. I had found Harker's Achille's heel. All I had to do was slip through the access and down to maintenance. That would bypass the guards at the main doors.

"Go," I said cheerfully and Heero sighed in relief.

"We have the information," He told me. "Une is so pleased she said she would have your first child as thanks. I told her you had other plans."

I chuckled and then stopped walking. Six armed men, Harker, and a pissed looking Deiter rounded a corner. Guns charged and they were all aimed at my chest. Harker stepped forward, blue eyes snapping with fury. I guess they hadn't been fooled by my surveillance trick.

"Red Flag," I said under my breath and dropped the garbage bags.

"Scan him," Harker barked.

A man nervously stepped forward with a hand held wand. He found my com unit right away. He dug it out of my ear viciously and then crushed it with his boot.

"Son of a bitch!" I howled as I clutched at my bleeding ear.

The man used his wand again. My tracker was cloaked. He passed by it.

"Nothing," he reported and stepped back

"You had your chance, Maxwell," Harker told me, suddenly going cold. His eyes said, 'killer'. "Take him to the box. I want him to die slowly."

Deiter grinned. "Looks like we're taking out all the garbage today."

"Make sure the other garbage gets incinerated," Harker growled cryptically. "I want to threaten them with their brats, not actually keep them and start a day care."

Sometimes, you don't have to have things spelled out. This was one of those times. I knew enough about the ugly side of life to believe anything of people. I wished Heero and Wu Fei were still listening. I wanted the calvary to ride in, not to save my ass, but to stop what I suspected was about to happen to children.

They hustled me away, two men gripping me by the arms while they held their guns to my head. I guess my reputation had them scared. I really hoped that they didn't have nervous trigger fingers. Guns like that had a light touch. Deiter followed, smiling in a way that made my skin crawl.

"Every find that whore for me?" I couldn't help shooting back at him, knowing that I had probably made him go to the 'professional' quarter and ask for a boy.

The blow wasn't unexpected. The man on my right was surprised in a bad way, though. His gun went off as I was shoved forward by the force of the blow. The shot just missed my head and punched a hole in a wall. Metal shrapnel cut my cheek. I wiped at the blood and grimaced, still staggering a little from the double fisted blow Dieter had given me to my back.

"Open your mouth again and I'll make sure he takes off your head next time," Deiter threatened.

I'd gotten out of the habit of almost dying. I couldn't help a shiver, even while my mind, always the cynic, wondered if I should make them kill me. It didn't sound nice, what they had in store for me.

We started walking again and then went down a lift to the first floor. This was the section I had been trying to escape to. Storage units, extra parking, garbage, and catering access. There was a fenced section, topped with razor wire, that was open to the sun. This was where trucks pulled in to drop off or pick up loads and this was where they took me.

The storage units were four sided metal boxes with locks. Two were empty. I knew one was about to be filled... with me. I had a very good idea how long I would last in the heat in a metal box like that. Long enough to suffer, just like Harker wanted.

"I want my mama!" a child wailed.

"Shut up," A male voice snarled. "We're taking you to them, so be quiet and do what you're told!"

I turned and saw a group of very small children being led to a truck by a group of armed men. Pig tails, wide, innocent eyes, and pudgy thumbs in mouths... babies... They were all just babies. When I saw one drop her teddy bear, I was ducking out of the grasp of my captors to retrieve it. I heard guns power up, but they paused when they saw me lift the teddy and crouch by one of the little girls. I smiled at her. She looked terrified, tears streaming from her blue eyes, and wasn't reassured.

"It's okay," I crooned to her. "You heard him. You're going back to your parents." I knew it for the lie it was, but I needed time. I scratched hard at the chip in my neck and the thing came out. I jammed it into a seam of the teddy bear with my finger, making a hole in the soft material. Handing her the bear, I said, "Hold him tight. He'll keep you safe."

"I will," She intoned seriously, as if she perfectly understood that I had just given her my only chance of getting rescued.

"Come on, play time's over!" Deiter snarled and jerked me up by my braid. He kept dragging me by it and I let him, even though murder boiled through my blood. I couldn't make trouble, not just then. I had to let that girl, those babies, get away without suspicion.

My neck was bleeding. I managed to keep that side turned away as they tossed me in the storage unit. Metal clanged as I rolled and slammed against the back wall. It was already damned hot. I struggled up to get away from the burning metal.

"I wish I had a camera in here," Deiter said as he looked at the four walls appraisingly. "Be nice to see your ass squirm."

And then the doors were being slammed shut and locked and all that was left was for me was to fry.


	24. Trial by Fire

Lawless Hearts  
Part 24:Trial By Fire  
by Kracken

 

It wasn't completely dark. I wasn't sure whether that made it better or not. A thin line of light ran along the bottom of the door and a very small trace of air seeped through along with it. I wasn't going to suffocate. Harker's orders were being followed to the letter, though. Having air was just going to make me suffer longer. I wondered how long it took a man to bake to death and what was involved.

The container stank. Fuel rods had been stored there at one time, and some sort of hydraulic unit, I thought. I paced my prison and felt grease on the walls and gritty dirt. I touched the seals on the metal plating, felt screw heads flush with the wall, and searched the hinges on the door. The hinges were my best bet. I searched my clothes, but I had traveled light and they had taken everything else. I took off one of my ID cards and used the metal clip to try and work something apart. It was like digging a tunnel with a spoon, but I wasn't going to go down without a fight.

The heat grew. I knew better than to hope for rain or a cold snap. Might as well hope for Hell to freeze over. I peeled my uniform down to my waist and used the sleeves to mop the running sweat from my face. My fingers cramped, the edges of the card cut my skin, and blood began to run with the sweat streaming down my arms, but I continued to pry. If a door could swing open, it could be jimmied, I reasoned. I just had to have the time to do it.

My improvised tool snapped. I sat down abruptly on the hot metal of the floor and fingered the two pieces. Neither of them were long enough to use. I squeezed them in my fist and then jammed them into my pocket. When you didn't have anything, you didn't waste material.

I felt over my body, over my clothes, trying to find something else to use. I didn't find anything, but I couldn't stop searching. As my hands roamed, I thought of Heero. I hoped that he'd found the children by now and saved them. I thought about might have beens, too, and realized that he had managed to make me believe... believe in him, believe in us, believe that something could happen after all of this was over. My pessimistic street sense had been lying, putting up a rough front of denial, but... there it was, crying along with Hope at the loss of my future. Heero had convinced even it.

"Shit," I whispered to the dark.

I thought about writing Heero a note, maybe in my sweat and blood, to let him know... It would have been great? We could have been something? How I felt? I shoved wet bangs out of my eyes irritably. He knew all of that already. The only thing left for me to do was to not to die like a wuss. I wasn't fifteen anymore. I wasn't going to cry like I had when, during the war, I had nearly suffocated along with Wu Fei in a holding cell. I was a man, I was tough, I was... When Heero found me... he wasn't going to find me crawling.

The heat grew. I cut back a whimper and sat up when I realized that I was banging my head against the hot metal wall. I stopped my hands from tearing off my clothes. Nobody was going to find me nude. I latched onto that resolve. Die like a man, I told myself firmly. Mind over matter. I didn't have much longer. Pain was pain. I'd suffered worse. Pretty soon, I would pass out and then I would get the relief I wanted.

A slight breeze touched my hand. Ever seen a man dying of thirst find water? I couldn't stop myself from stretching out flat and getting my face as close as possible to the crack under the door. The breeze tickled my nose, my lips. I lay there, ignoring the burning floor, and thanked the bastard in charge of the weather controls that had decided that a breeze would be nice that day.

Light and a breeze. For a moment, it was blessed relief, but the heat wasn't going to be denied it's victim. It was crushing me, wringing out my life in sweat and a heat that would slowly melt my brain. While I waited, I tried seeing out, wanting some last look at something besides darkness, even if it was the concrete slab the container was sitting on. It was then that I saw a possibility. I pulled apart my sleeve, slipped it through the crack, and just moved it rapidly.

I remembered the guards at the front door of the government complex. I was so sure that they had been completely ignorant of their boss's dirty business. If I could find someone else like that, some ignorant dock worker... All they had to do was look my way, see the rag of sleeve moving, come over... Hope was working over time.

I felt myself fading. I kept up the movements, but there were patches were I 'came to' and had to start the motion again. I was running out of time. I thought of Heero and it wasn't about his love, his smile, or his warm attentiveness to me....I smirked when I thought of him in bed, supported on strong arms, arched back, slim neck exposed, moans coming up from the depths of his chest as he rode me. I remembered the feel of his stiff nipples under my fingers, the feel of his swollen erection shoving in and out of my tightness, the feel of the slip and slide of his hard muscles under his hot skin. I wanted to remember him like that, wanting me that badly, wanting to fuck me, own me, be in me. It's as romantic as I could get, really.

I wondered how Heero would remember me and I winced. I was a screw up, a loser.... I'd screwed up even this stupid mission... well, I had done my part, but getting out was part of being able to label it as a success and I hadn't managed that. Maybe Heero would remember me in bed too. I guess it's one of the few things we did together that was good. It was better than being 'the guy who ate twinkies with me' or 'the guy I was in the war with'. Being 'the guy I used to have hot sex with' was infinitely better. I snickered darkly.

I faded again after that. I'm not sure how long. When I came to, I stayed fuzzy, disoriented. My fingers were tucked under the crack of the door and they were really raw now. Sometime in my delirium, I had tried to crawl through the crack. Damn! So much for dying with dignity. I forced one hand back, but it was too late. They would see my blood and skin there. Heero would know.

It made me furious, that betrayal of my body. It had robbed me of my last dignity. I found myself kicking out, pounding with my fists, punishing my body and the walls of my prison with the last of my strength in an 'episode' of gand proportions. When I finally collapsed, bruised, bleeding, and... dying... There was a moment of peace, of utter quiet, and then I heard feet scuffing on concrete.

"Hey?!" A voice called out uncertainly. "Is somebody in there?"

I tried to reply. My throat was raw and a croak was all I could manage until I swallowed and used the last of my spit to wet my tongue enough to say. "Yeah... yeah! I'm trapped! Some asshole didn't know I was here... locked the door!"

"Mother fucker!" the voice exclaimed. "Hey, Rogers! Get over here! Somebody's in here and the damned thing is padlocked!"

I rolled onto my back and just panted in relief. Now, if they could only get me out before I died or before Harker's goons came back and stopped my rescuers.

"Here, buddy!" Water squirted through the crack. I jammed my face in it, my hands, bathed as much as I could. It seemed freezing but it was probably only luke warm. When the stream ended, the voice said, "I need to refill my water bottle. I'll be right back. We have to pry the lock open. The key is gone."

"Shit," I mumbled and closed my eyes as I rested my cheek in what was left of the water.

There were sounds of prying, pounding, and cursing. The lock was a strong one. More water was squirted. I drank some as best I could, but I knew that wasn't going to stop the heat from frying me alive. I was still feeling disoriented and I didn't think I could sit up if I had to.

"You there!" I knew Deiter's voice and my gut twisted. If he was back, if he wasn't dead with Heero's bullet between his eyes or cooling in a cell, then those children.... "Get the hell back to work!"

"But there's someone trapped in here!" A voice protested.

"We'll take care of it! We have the key," Deiter snarled. "You're garbage men! Take the garbage and get the hell out of here."

"We called for you guys to help," the man told him, confused and unwilling to abandon me. "Nobody came."

"That's why I'm here!" Deiter retorted. "You called and I came down to take care of this. Now get the hell out of here!"

I heard a gun clicking and a curse from one of my rescuers. "Dan," Deiter ordered coldly. "Looks like our trash men have gotten into some trouble. Why don't you put them where they won't bother us? We'll take care of them later."

"Will do,"a strange voice replied. "Get moving or I'll shoot you two right here!"

Feet moved away from the container. I closed my eyes tightly, knowing my last hope was leaving me.

"Comfortable, Maxwell?" Deiter asked loudly, sounding amused. "You'd better keep quiet or you're going to get some more people killed."

Deiter laughed at his own evilness. I summoned up enough strength to reply. "When my boyfriend gets hold of you, he's going to yank off your balls, fry them well done, and make you cut them up and eat them."

"With hot sauce," Heero's voice suddenly said, deep and as cold as the space between stars.

My entire body, my soul, my heart, and my head, jolted in shock as if I'd been give a thousand volt charge. I grinned from ear to ear and laughed in relief.

"Heero," I whispered hoarsely.

"Give me the key," Wu Fei's voice demanded. "Don't make me take it from you. That might involve killing you."

There was silence and then something rattled.

"Take him," Heero barked to someone else and then the padlock was being shifted. "Call for evac to the nearest hospital."

The click of the lock, the rattle of metal on metal, and then the opening of the door, was like seeing the gates of heaven open up in front of me. I couldn't help rolling out, not caring if I hit the concrete, just wanting out of that hot box. Heero caught me, eased me down, lips kissing my face while his hands looked for wounds.

"Just the heat, I think," Heero finally announced and I heard Wu Fei's sigh of relief very close by. I rolled my head and saw him crouched by me. I smiled weakly.

"Mission accomplished, boss," I told him.

Wu Fei looked... moved. He said gently, squeezing my arm just a little, "Well done. You can stand down now."

I didn't realize how tense I was, how I had been waiting for something like that. I guess you can't take the terrorist out of Duo Maxwell as easily as I thought. Heero was holding me. I had room for a little embarrassment, trying to turn my head to see who might be there to see me... well, needing to be held, but my senses spun and I really hoped this was just passing out and not... death.  
_____________________________

Preventer hospitals are nice. I had my own room, a picture window that looked out on the park, and room service. I think I would have enjoyed it more if tubes weren't stuck into my wrists and monitor patches weren't pulling hairs out of my skin. Just being able to wake up, though, made me pretty damned forgiving of just about everything.

I fingered the small medal on my hospital gown. I had found it in the first few moments after waking up and, for three days now, I was still marveling at it. Sure I had medals from the war, but that was for killing and trying to sacrifice my life while, well, killing people. This was different. Heero, who had been hovering by my bed like my damned shadow, had grinned while explaining what it was for.

I had saved those children. Deiter hadn't gone with the truck. I hadn't failed. Heero and Wu Fei had found them just in time and they were all now back with their parents. The little girl had been the one to save me, returning the favor as soon as she had worked her courage up to tug on the sleeve of the frantic, dark haired, Preventer agent. She had told Heero that the nice man with the long hair had been put in a box by nasty men. She wanted to make sure that I went home to my mommy and daddy too.

And here I was, no mommy and daddy, but an attentive lover who was eager to get me out of that hospital so that we could start our life together... only he could see that future really clean and really bright and I... I was just seeing a fog. I didn't confess it, of course, it was just too good to be alive and seeing him so damned happy. It was only after I'd had time to stew in my hospital bed and take stock of life, that the fog grew into something dark and impenetrable. Maybe he saw it to, finally. Heero had grown concerned and I... I had verbally pushed him out of my room, wanting to be angry and disgusted with myself without any company.

Heero was a stubborn man. I knew he wouldn't go far or stay away long, so I looked up when I heard the door opening, expecting either Heero or a nurse. Instead, Wu Fei came into the room, dressed in a clean, crisp Preventer uniform. His expression told me his errand was business. He came to my bedside and I saw grave respect in his eyes. It made me confused and I found myself not saying anything.

"I misjudged you. I ask for your pardon," Wu Fei said and gave me a stiff bow.

"Yeah, sure," I replied and felt awkward. I fiddled with an IV tube as I said sarcastically, "I can see how you would think I was a loser, selfish, street trash, ex thief..." Wu Fei's irritated expression stopped me. I sighed and stopped my attempt to put off the inevitable. "Okay... so... You just came to apologize?"

That was too much to hope for. Wu Fei shook his head and told me, "I'm here on official business."

I scowled. "What now? Am I being arrested? Business foreclosed on? Tax man prosecuting? Plague? Locusts?"

Wu Fei raised an eyebrow and he actually smiled, amused, "Locusts?"

I shrugged. "I saw it in a movie once."

Wu Fei snorted and I finally saw the guy Heero called a friend, but only for a moment, and then he was composed and all business again as he told me, "I am here to make you an offer."

I tensed and looked towards the window. We were high up. I could see the dust rising to the station ceiling in the far distance as the filters engaged. I thought about my lot, my business, my life. "I was forced to do this mission," I said, "I don't want to do any more."

"You are not disciplined enough to be an agent in the field," Wu Fei replied, "though your skill is unquestionable," he added.

I grunted, "Then, what?"

"Une is offering you a position as a consultant, a field expert, " Wu Fei explained. "You'll be in charge of outfitting and mission planning." I scowled, off balance, but then he continued, as if uncomfortable with it, "To sweeten the deal, Une has also offered you the position overseeing the Preventer stock yard.... the dump, in other words. It contains all of our damaged vehicles and equipment. With funds being so tight, Une is interesting in salvaging as much as possible."

I laughed, I didn't care that it made my patches yank out hair or the needles in my arms jiggle painfully. Wu Fei watched me, probably wondering if he should call a nurse. I sounded on the edge of hysteria even to myself. I calmed myself with an effort. "So," I said, getting back my breath, "The Lady takes and the Lady gives. Bet she likes that kind of power." Before Wu Fei could argue, I continued acidly, " But, you know, it just wouldn't seem right without people like that in my life."

Wu Fei looked down at his slim hands and then up at me again. "Maxwell... You've been hiding here. You know you have. When what we are so good at causes so much destruction and death, it's normal to try to lock it up and forget that kind of talent ever existed in us."

Wu Fei sounded serious and he sounded as if his words came from personal experience. I suddenly knew that he had done his own kind of running, too, and had ended up with the Preventers in the end.

"I wasn't hiding," I argued. "I did want my own business, my own scrap lot."

He gave me a hard look. "Did it ever make you happy?"

I opened my mouth and then closed it. I was that sure he would know I was lying if I tried to say it had. Being alone, thinking of drinking myself to death along with my drunken employees, knowing that I had failed at 'normal'... I knew I had been sliding towards something and happiness hadn't had anything to do with.

My train was coming. It was time to jump on and ride it to a new destination. "I'll have to leave L2?" I asked softly.

"Yes," Wu Fei replied. "We're headquartered on Earth."

I nodded. I didn't trust my voice. I comforted myself by telling myself that I wasn't giving up. I hadn't really failed as long as I was still moving forward, still taking advantage of options... of life.

"We leave in two days. You'll be released tomorrow morning," Wu Fei told me.

" 'Kay," I mumbled. When I looked up, he was gone, the door sliding slowly shut by itself.  
______________________________________

My things were packed, locked, and sent special delivery to my new home; a place I'd never seen before, but an address handed to me by Heero and therefore to be trusted. As he sat with me at the port, both of us waiting for a transport to take us to Earth, we were quiet. I guess I looked pissed. Heero knew I had agreed to take the position, but he wasn't sure how I was feeling about it... about us. I guess my anger did include him. When I hurt, I bit everything in sight, even the person I loved. So, we sat in silence, separated by my anger and his uncertainty.

"When I found those children," Heero said suddenly, looking at the crowd in the port and not at me, "instead of you... when I realized what you had done... I thought I was going to die. Even if this mission ruined whatever we could have had between us... Please, don't shut me out of your life completely. I-I don't think I could stand-"

I reached out and took hold of his hand tightly. Screw anybody who was looking. "I have every fucking right to be pissed as hell!" I grated at him and squeezed Heero's hand until he winced, but he was looking at me now, a whole new kind of hurt in his eyes."I have every right to kick your ass from here to the next planet, " I told him. "I have every right to turn my back and just walk away." The pain in Heero's eyes intensified and he was suddenly squeezing my hand back harder than I was squeezing his.

I leaned in close, saying through gritted teeth, "I love you, though, and whatever bad happened during this nightmare, that was definitely not part of it. In fact... It is the best thing that's ever happened to me. " I swallowed uncomfortably and then bulled on when I saw him begin to glow, begin to smile in relief, "You gotta know, though, I'm not taking that kind of shit again, even from you, got that?" He nodded quickly, the smile leaving him and his expression going tense at my tone. "So...." I trailed off, trying to find words and coming up empty. I ended up saying abruptly, "So, let's move in together, and all that."

I turned away, arms crossing over my chest as I sank into my seat.

There was a long stretch of silence and then Heero replied carefully, obviously struggling with the joy of my suggestion and the fear that he might be about to piss me off again. "I... uh... already..." He cleared his throat and tried again. "I picked out an apartment and sent your things there... mine as well. It was the address that I gave you..."

I scowled. "You were that sure about 'us'?" I snarled.

Heero leaned so that his shoulder was against mine. It was as if the world, the bustling space port, and everyone around us, suddenly disappeared when he said, "No. I ... I had hoped, but I made sure my things stayed in my duffel just in case I wasn't welcome.. Mostly, the apartment is for you, so you won't have to worry about a place to stay, and to keep your things safe. I didn't want them sent to a space port locker. Things happen there. Things get stolen."

Keep your things safe. Heero couldn't have said anything else that would have made my heart burn for him as much as those four words.. I turned, grabbed him by the back of the neck, and looked deeply into his startled eyes. There were so many things that I wanted to say just then, how I was feeling, my sudden hope that everything was going to be okay now, that maybe we did have more than a chance in hell of being a couple. It was just too big to squeeze into sentences though. I struggled, growled in frustration, and then knew exactly what to do. I picked up the end of my braid, the thing I never wanted anyone to touch, the thing that I guarded so fiercely, because of what it reminded me of, the small bit of my past where the gentle fingers of a nun had shown me, if only briefly, what it was like to have a mother, and I placed it in Heero's hand.

Did he get it? I was ready for him to frown and look confused, to say something... not right about it. I waited for him to ruin this gift I was giving him, this big, important chunk of myself, this tangible sign that I wanted him with me and that, whatever had happened before that moment, I was ready to trust him, love him, and be with him.

Heero held the end of my braid, looking down at it. He didn't frown. He didn't look confused. He trembled, then he kissed it, and then he was pulling me into his arms and clutching at me so hard it hurt.

Okay, throw the rice and play the wedding march, we were married. I grinned as he kissed me, making it goofy and sloppy, and then we both laughed like little kids. I had jumped to another train, passing in the opposite direction of where I had thought my destination in life lay, but Heero had been waiting for me on that train. We would ride where ever it went, together.

The end


End file.
